


Uneasy Beginnings

by marvelouslystupid



Series: The Price of Friendship [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen, Human Companion, Jack Harkness Being Jack Harkness, Rose Having Someone To Talk Some Sense About Mickey, Series One Rewrite, The Doctor Just Wanting Friends, rework of old fanfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24019264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelouslystupid/pseuds/marvelouslystupid
Summary: Lexie Holmes has been always been a faithful member of Henry Van Statten's research team, but her loyalty wavers when the Doctor steps into her world. How will the Doctor react to a companion who knows their way around alien tech? Will Rose become the Bad Wolf… or will something else take its place? First in The Price of Friendship.
Relationships: Rose Tyler & Original Female Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Price of Friendship [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732522
Kudos: 7





	1. Dalek - Metaltron

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello everyone! Look who's back on that Doctor Who train, it's me… ya boi. This story, along with future stories within the Doctor Who series, is a new take on stuff that I wanted to include in future To Own His Hearts stories and wanted to start off clean. So, instead of just following the Doctor and the companion's POV, I'm going to pretty much follow the transcript to the tee because, again, kinda wished I did that for TOHH.
> 
> So, in theory, there will be 25 chapters (24 episode chapters & 1 Children in Need chapter) which is practically double what I've already done before.
> 
> The OC of this story is Lexie Holmes, who I imagine to look like Jamie Chung and she doesn't have a distinct outfit unlike the Doctor.
> 
> So, no Daniel Young, no Phoenix… just normal Doctor Who and normal companions. Or am I lying? Who knows… who knows.
> 
> I'm rambling, but on with the show.
> 
> ~DW~ means a scene change.
> 
> Disclaimer; I do not own Doctor Who, all rights go to the BBC, or any likeness to actors/actresses but I do own any and all original characters and subplots. If I did, however, I would have had more references to past companions, old and new who, and past events instead of acting like they never existed.

**Dalek – The Metaltron**

~DW~

The TARDIS materialised deep under Utah, having locked onto a distress call from an unknown source and pulled them completely off course. The Doctor and Rose stepped out of the box, looking around at the dark room they had landed in.

"So, what is it?" Rose asked, noticing the Doctor's confused look as he looked back at the box, "what's wrong?"

"Don't know," he replied, "some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course…"

"Where are we?" Rose frowned, peering into the darkness expecting to find something.

"Earth, Utah, North America. About half a hole underground."

"And… where are we?"

"2012."

"God, that's so close, so I should be…" she paused, "twenty-six," she watched as the Doctor walked to a nearby wall and flicked a switch, lights flooding in to reveal numerous glass cubes mounted to the walls, "blimey! It's a great big museum!"

"An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby. They must've spent a fortune on this," he frowned as they walked past some displays, peering at some of the more notable displays, "chunks of meteorite, moon dust… that's the milometer from the Roswell Spaceship

"That's a bit of Slitheen!" Rose's eyes widened, walking over to peer at the severed arm, "that's a Slitheen's arm, it'd been _stuffed_."

The Doctor's attention, however, is pulled elsewhere, "ah! Look at you!" he looked down at the mounted robotic head, its two teardrop designed eyes blankly staring back at him.

"What is it?" Rose asked, stood behind him.

"And old friend of mine… well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

"Is that where the signal's coming from?"

"Nah, it's stone dead. The signal's alive," he corrected her, "something's reaching out," he stared intently through the glass, "calling for help," and he gently placed his finger on the glass, sighing slightly.

Neither of them could have been surprised when an alarm sounded throughout the room… which made sense because who wouldn't want all these alien artefacts protected. But, instead of a few security guards and possibly a scientist emerging from the corner, heavily armed guards swarmed in…

Their weapons aiming directly at _them_.

"If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you Exhibit A," Rose muttered to the Doctor as he flashed a grin at the soldiers.

~DW~

The doors of the elevator that led directly to the helipad above the facility opened as a well-dressed, slowly balding, man with a goatee stepped out and walked swiftly down a corridor as a small entourage of soldiers and personnel flanked behind him, each of them pushing past another to speak with the man.

"On behalf of all of us, I want to wish you a very happy birthday, sir," one of his aides said, practically elbowing someone out of the way, "and the President called to convey his personal best wishes."

"The President is ten points down," he stated coolly, "I want him replaced."

The aide frowned, "I don't think that's very wise, sir…"

"Thank you so very much for your opinion, you're _fired_ ," he glanced over his shoulder at the soldiers, "get rid of him."

"Wha…" the man blinked in shock, opening his mouth to say something, but the soldiers just pulled him back, dragging him out of sight.

"Wipe his memory, put him on the road someplace," he called over his shoulder to them as he continued walking, "Memphis, Minneapolis, somewhere beginning with 'M,'" a tall ginger woman quickly hastened to take the man's place at his side, "so, the next President, what do you think? Republican or Democrat?"

"Democrat, sir," she replied.

"For what reason?" he stopped suddenly, eyeing her.

The woman tensed, as did the others present, all of them knowing that the wrong answer would have her end up like the previous man, "they're just so funny, sir?"

He eyed her more closely this time, "what's your name?"

"Goddard, sir, Diana Goddard."

He smiled suddenly, though it seemed unnatural on his face, "I like you Diana Goddard," and turned to continue on, "so, where's the English kid?"

A young man pushed his way through the entourage, his accent thick compared to the Americans around him, "sir! Sir! Lexie bought ten more artefacts at auction, Mr. Van Statten."

"Bring 'em on, let me see 'em," Van Statten ordered, the 'English kid' hurrying on ahead.

"Sir, with respect, there's something more urgent," Goddard cut in, "we arrested two intruders fifty-three floors down. We don't know how they got in."

"I'll tell you how they got in. In-tru-da window…" no one laughed at what Van Statten thought was an _obvious_ joke, "in-tru-da window," he glanced over his shoulder at them, "that was _funny_."

And suddenly, as if now realising the joke, they all burst into tense, yet polite sounding, laughter.

Van Statten grinned, pleased with the reaction, "Bring 'em, let's see 'em, and tell Simmons and Holmes I wanna visit my little pet. Get to it!"

He turned and walked through a door as Goddard stepped aside, tapping her earpiece, "Simmons? Holmes? You'd better give me good news. Is it talking?"

"Not exactly _talking_ , no," an American woman replied, the sound of a distorted, robotic screaming, muffled in the background.

"What is he doing to it?"

"Making it scream…as he always does."

Goddard shook her head, "any of your methods worked?"

"Simmons won't let me anywhere near the subject," Holmes sighed, "claims its for my safety… but I think he's being a bastard as usual."

Goddard simply sighed, quickly cutting the connection when she spotted the two intruders being escorted up, and quickly turned to join Van Statten in his office as 'the English kid' was showing him the artifacts Lexie had bought them, "and this is the last… paid 800,000 dollars for it," the boy was saying, holding up a sort of triangular device with small ridges and the faint glow of lights from beneath.

Goddard looked over as the Doctor and Rose were brought in and led to the desk.

"What does it do?" Van Statten asked, not bothering to look in the direction of the intruders, as he took the device from the kid.

"Well you see, the tubes on the side must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel…"

"I really wouldn't hold it like that," the Doctor cut in.

"Shut it," Goddard glared at him.

"Really, though, that's wrong."

"Is it dangerous?" the kid looked up at him, concerned.

"No," he just shook his head, "just looks silly," he held his hand out for the artifact when the guards readied their guns, forcing him to pause. Van Statten held up a hand, and the guards lowered their guns, and he nodded to the Doctor to take the device, "you just need to be…" he ran his fingers gently over the artifact, playing a few different musical notes, "…delicate."

Everyone looked at him rather impressed as he beamed at them, continuing to play the artifact effortlessly.

"It's a musical instrument," Van Statten breathed.

"And it's a very long way from home," the Doctor nodded.

Van Statten then stood saying, "here, let me," as he snatched it away from the Doctor, who merely raised his eyebrows.

"I did say 'delicate,'" he reminded lightly as Van Statten attempted to recreate the music the Doctor had made, but only seemed to succeed in making a series of bleeping noises, "reacts to the smallest of fingerprint. It needs precision," Van Statten touched it more gently, managing to play a few notes much to the Doctor's delight, "very good. Quite the expert."

"As are you," Van Statten smiled falsely, throwing the instrument aside where it landed somewhere on the floor. The Doctor's eyes following it, slightly alarmed by the lack of care the man had, "who exactly are you?"

The Doctor looked back to him, a slightly disdainful look in his eyes, "I'm the Doctor. And who are _you_?"

"Like you don't know," he scoffed, rolling his eyes slightly, "we're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the world and you just stumbled in by mistake?"

"Pretty much sums me up, _yeah_."

"The question is… how did you get in? fifty-three floors down? With your little cat burglar accomplice," he looked at Rose, smirking, "quite the collector yourself, she's rather pretty."

"She's gonna smack you if you keep calling her 'she,'" Rose threatened, glaring.

"She's English too!" he laughed, turning to look at 'the English kid,' "hey, little Lord Fauntleroy, got you a girlfriend,"

The young man just rolled his eyes, "This is Mr. Henry Van Statten."

"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose asked.

"Mr. Van Statten owns the Internet."

"Don't be stupid, no one owns the Internet."

"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?" Van Statten winked at her.

"So, you're an expert on just about everything except the things in your museum," the Doctor reasoned, "anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten eyed him closely.

"I don't need to make claims. I know how good I am."

"And yet, _I_ captured _you_. Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me."

"The Cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know," Van Statten just shook his head.

"Show me," the Doctor countered.

"Blimey, you can smell the testosterone," Rose joked lightly, slightly uncomfortable.

"Goddard, inform the Cage," Van Statten began to order, "we're heading down," Goddard nodded, stepping out for the moment, "you, English," he turned to the young man, "look after the girl. Canoodle or spoon, or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor-with-no-name…" he stepped out of the office, gesturing to a nearby elevator, "come and see my pet."

~DW~

Lexie Holmes was sat in front of an array of computers outside of 'the Cage', her black hair tied up as she checked the vital signs from the 'Metaltron' Simmons was attempting to cut open. The vitals were erratic, constantly dropping to a state of near death before rocketing to unnaturally high readings that would have resulted in the death of any human… but they weren't dealing with any human after all. Its outer casing was almost impenetrable, today alone it had broken five different tools; human and alien alike, and Simmons was on his fifth replacement chain and they had no idea what lurked inside… Lexie didn't even know what the hell it looked like.

But she had a theory.

Based on Simmons data and the briefest illuminated flash on the monitor, they were dealing with something that was better destroyed than stored. But she had no proof, nothing to back up her idea other than it had an outer casing but she'd seen the recovered Cyberman so she was not sure _what_ it was.

She shook her head, clearing her head of the thoughts, shrugging on her lab coat as the sound of footsteps drew closer. She plastered a fake smile on her face as Van Statten entered 'the Cage' with the Doctor in tow, Statten's chest was puffed out as he was eager to show off his greatest prize.

"Sherlock," Statten half-heartedly greeted her as she nodded her head in greeting to her boss, "Doctor-with-no-name meet Sherlock Holmes," Lexie held out a hand for the Doctor to shake, both of them plastering fake smiles on as they made brief pleasantries with one another, "she's the lead on all things alien, I don't know what I'd do without her,"

Lexie false smile wavered as Van Statten slapped a hand on her shoulder, shaking her slightly, before gesturing for her to speak, "Goddard informed me that you're here to see the creature," she turned to show them the readings on the screen, Van Statten entering a code "we've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself inside but as you can see its life signs are relatively strong,"

"Inside?" the Doctor frowned, peering at the readings, "inside what?"

"Welcome back, sir," Simmons stepped out, dressed in a protective suit, "I've had to take the power down, the Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?"

"Thought of it myself," Van Statten smirked, "good, isn't it? Although I'd much prefer to find out its real name," he shot a look at Lexie, who looked away, "maybe you can have Sherlock's job is yours."

Simmons turned to the Doctor, "here, you'd better put these on," he offered the Doctor a pair of thick gloves, "the last guy that touched it… burst into flames."

"I won't touch it then," the Doctor replied.

"Go ahead, Doctor," Van Statten gestured to the door, "impress me," stepping back as the Doctor entered the Cage, "don't open that door until we get a result," he quietly ordered a nearby guard, as he, Goddard and Lexie stood before a the monitor with a direct feed into the Cage.

~DW~

The Doctor looked over his shoulder as the door shut behind him, a small light barely illuminated the entrance of the chamber. He could see in the corner some instruments, some he recognised from other races, that he assumed Simmons had been using on whatever creature lurked inside. He looked over and saw a faint blue glow from the darkness, "look, I'm sorry about this. Mr. Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor."

"Doc-tor…" the alien began, its distorted, metallic voice echoing.

The Doctor's blood ran cold as he stared in horror at creature, " _Impossible_ ,"

"THE Doctor?" the lights began to switch on in the chamber, his eyes widening as he stumbled backwards as his greatest enemy was fully illuminated, "exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The Doctor turned and ran to the door, slamming his hand on it, desperate to escape the Dalek within.

~DW~

"Sir, it's going to kill him!" Goddard cried, eyes wide when Van Statten refused to open the door.

"It's talking!" he hissed at her, eyes alight with joy.

~DW~

"You are an enemy of the Daleks!" it cried, its distorted voice now clearer, "you must be destroyed!"

It waved its laser arm around helplessly and the Doctor's terrified expression quickly morphed in a huge grin, "it's not working!" the Dalek's eyestalk looked down at its laser arm while the Doctor laughed manically, "fantastic! Oh _fantastic_! Powerless! Look at you. The Great Space Dustbin. How does it feel?" he lunged at the Dalek who strained against the chains to keep its distance.

"Keep back!"

The Doctor looked straight into its eyestalk, only inches away from it, "what for? What're you going to do to me? If you can't kill… then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you?" he shook his head, stepping away before circling the Dalek, it followed his every movement with its eyestalk, "you're nothing. What the hell are you here for?"

"I am waiting for orders."

"What does that mean?" he scoffed.

"I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders."

"Well you're never gonna get any. Not _ever_."

"I demand orders!"

"They're never gonna come! Your race is _dead_! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire, the entire Dalek race wiped out in one second."

"You lie!"

"I watched it happen. I MADE it happen!

"…you destroyed us?"

The Doctor's expression changed, any sense of anger wiped from his face as backed away from the Dalek, turning away from it, "I had no choice," he said quietly.

"And what of the Time Lords?"

"Dead. They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost."

"And the coward survived."

"Oh. And I caught your little signal," he began to mock it, " _help me_ , poor little thing, but there's no one else coming 'cos there's no one else left."

The Dalek lowered its eyestalk, "I am alone in the Universe."

The Doctor smiled, "yep."

"So are you," it looked up at him as his smile faded, "we are the same."

The Doctor spun around angrily, "We're NOT the same, I'm not…" he stopped suddenly, "no, wait. Maybe we _are_. You're right, yeah, ok. You've got a point. 'cos I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve," he raised his eyebrows, "exterminate."

He turned and pulled a lever on a control panel, electrocuting coursing through the Dalek, never looking away as it started screaming again.

"Have pity!" it cried.

"Why should I?" he glared, "you never did!" he looked away only to increase the voltage.

~DW~

Back outside the Cage, all of the Dalek's vital signs were dropping rapidly, and Van Statten turned to the soldiers. "Get him out!"

Lexie and Goddard, both women who had heard worse things, had to look away as the Dalek's screams grew louder as the door to the chamber opened. "Help me!" it cried out, voice starting to shake.

The soldiers dragged the Doctor out of the Cage with an ironlike grip as he desperately fought to escape them, to finish what he had started… whether it was back in the 'Time War' or here on Earth, Lexie wasn't sure.

"I saved your life," Van Statten turned to the Dalek, "now talk to me! God damn it, _talk to_ me!"

"You've got to destroy it!" the Doctor shouted as he was dragged round the corner.

"The last in the Universe," Van Statten continued to address the Dalek, ignoring the Doctor, "and now I know your name. _Dalek_. Speak to me, Dalek," it didn't reply, not even looking at him, "I am Henry Van Statten, now _recognise_ me!" again, no reply. So, he turned Simmons, "make it talk again, Simmons," Simmons approached the Dalek, a sinister look on his face, "whatever it takes."

~DW~

Rose looked around the messy workshop where Adam, who had introduced himself properly to Rose the moment they were out of earshot from Van Statten, worked in as he showed her around.

"Sorry about the mess," Adam apologised, "Mr. Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing. So long as I deliver the goods…" he watched as Rose prodded a few things on a workbench, before picking up an object, "what do you think that is?" he asked, handing her the object.

She turned it in her hand, frowning, "er… a lump of metal?"

"Yeah," Adam smiled, "yeah, but _I_ think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft," Rose looked more closely at the lump of metal before placing it down carefully, "the thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecrafts, aliens, visitors to Earth, they really exist."

"That's amazing,"

"I know it sounds incredible," he nodded, looking around the room, suddenly shy, "but I honestly believe that the whole Universe is teeming with life."

"I'm gob-smacked, yeah," she smiled at him, hiding her amusement by turning on the spot to look around the room, "and you do what? Sit here and catalogue it?"

"Best job in the world," he scoffed.

"Imagine if you could get out there. Travel amongst the stars and see it for real?"

"Yeah… I'd give anything," he sighed sadly, "but I don't think it's ever gonna happen, not in our lifetimes."

"Oh, you never know…" she smirked slightly, "what about all those people who say they've been inside spaceships and things and talked to aliens?"

"I think they're nutters."

"Yeah, me too," she had to laugh, after all that was her life now, "so, how'd you end up here?"

"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"Ah, right, you're a genius."

"Sorry, but yeah… can't help it, I was born clever," he joked lightly, making her smile, "when I was eight, I logged onto the U.S. Defence System, nearly caused World War Three."

"What, and that's funny is it?" she turned to him with wide eyes, the Slitheen in Downing Street and the almost World War III still fresh on her mind.

"Well you should've been there! Just to see them running about! Fantastic!"

"You sound like the Doctor."

"Are you and him…"

"No!" she quickly said, clearing her throat slightly, "we're just friends."

He nodded, "good."

Rose smiled, a bit shy now, "why's it good?"

"Just is," he smiled back, both of them just smiling at one another for a moment.

"So…" Rose turned away, the moment still there… but slowly fading away, "wouldn't you rather be downstairs? I mean, you've got these bits of metal and stuff, but Mr. Van Statten's got a _living_ creature down there."

"Yeah… yeah well, I _did_ ask but he keeps it to himself, won't even tell Lexie either. Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch in on the comms system."

Rose laughed, "let's have a look then."

Adam turned to the computer and tapped some keys, Rose observing over his shoulder all the while, "it doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird, it's kind of… useless, it's just like this… great big pepper pot."

Adam stepped aside as Rose leaned in close to look at the footage, her eyes widening in horror as Simmons approached the Dalek with some sort of device, the Dalek screaming as the torture began again.

"It's being tortured!" she looked to Adam in alarm, "where's the Doctor?"

"I don't know," Adam could only shake his head.

"Take me down there. _Now_!" she didn't wait for him to reply, running out of the room.

~DW~

One of the guards pushed the Doctor into an elevator with Van Statten, Goddard, and a few other guards as they moved onto another area of the compound.

"The metal's just battle armour," the Doctor explained, "the real Dalek creature's inside."

"What does it look like?" Van Statten asked.

"A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered, every single emotion was removed except hate."

"Genetically engineered…" Van Statten mused, sounding impressed, "by whom?"

"By a genius, Van Statten," the Doctor glared at him, disgusted by the impressed tone, "by a man who was king of his own little world, you'd like him."

"It's been on Earth for fifty years," Goddard cut in, "sold at a private auction moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?"

"Because I'm here," the Doctor replied with a sigh, before he looked at Goddard, "how did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?"

"Records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands, burnt in its crater for nearly three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must've gone insane."

"Must've fallen through time," he reasoned, "the only survivor."

"You talked about a war?" Goddard asked.

"The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

"But you survived too," Van Statten muttered, eying him.

"Not by choice," the Doctor quietly said, not catching the greedy look in Van Statten's eyes.

"This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth, Doctor, there's _you_ ," Van Statten grinned wickedly, "the only one of your kind in existence."

~DW~

"It's a Dalek ma'am," Lexie said quietly into an old flip phone, one that didn't suit someone of her time or payroll, "yes I'm sure, it announced itself when the Doctor arrived."

"He's there?" a British voice gasped.

"Yes," Lexie shook her head, now wasn't the time to be concerned with the Doctor, "look, do I have your permission or not to destroy the Dalek?"

The women on the other end of the phone sighed, pulling it away from her ear as she spoke to someone, "yes, your new mission is to destroy. We'll be sending in a retrieval team to deal with Statten and his team."

Lexie hung up the phone, nodding to herself as she began to make her way to 'the Cage' once more all the while dismantling the phone. She had her mission, and she was damn well sure she was going to succeed, and reached into her pocket to pull out something she'd hidden from Van Statten… a small blaster pistol that she hoped would have enough fire power to destroy a weakened Dalek.

A/N: dun dun dunnn! I kinda lied in the summary, oopsies daisy, but here is the first chapter of Uneasy Beginnings! I'm not gonna guarantee when the next chapter is gonna be but it will happen.


	2. Dalek - The Escape

The lights in Van Statten's examination room slashed on, illuminating the Doctor who had been chained up against a rack and stripped of his jacket and shirt. Van Statten stood behind an instrument, pointing it at the Doctor.

"Now, smile!" he shouted as the instrument shot some sort of beam over the Doctor's torso, scanning him, causing him to moan in pain and grimace. A model of his ribcage appeared on a wall mounted monitor of the instrument, his two hearts beating rapidly within it, "two hearts! Binary vascular system!" Van Statten listed off the report with glee, "I am so going to _patent_ this!"

"So that's your secret," the Doctor glared, "you don't collect this stuff, you scavenge it."

"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries," Van Statten defended himself with a scoff, "all it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk, you have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian Crater, and do you know what they found," the Doctor just looked at him angrily, though questioningly, "the cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course, no need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can a _thousand_ palliatives?" he smiled smugly.

"Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is _honest_. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species, that creature in your dungeon is better than you."

"In that case, I will be true to myself and continue," Van Statten shrugged, walking back to the instrument.

The Doctor struggled against his restraints, growing frantic as he tried everything within his power for the man to understand the true threat, shouting, "listen to me, that thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!"

Van Statten just scoffed, running the scan again, "nothing can escape the Cage," and pain began to course through the Doctor's body.

"But it's woken up! It knows I'm here! It's gonna get out! Van Statten, I swear no one on this base is safe! No one on this planet!"

But it was useless because the instrument just continued with its scan.

~DW~

Adam entered the room just outside of the Cage followed closely by Rose, "hold it right there!" one of the guards shouted, no sign of Lexie.

Adam just flashed his ID card, banking on that to have Rose see the Dalek, "level 3 access. Special clearance from Mr. Van Statten," they walked past Simmons and entered the cage, Rose's gaze fixed on the Dalek within, "don't get too close," he warned as she started walking towards it.

She looked up, peering into its eyestalk, "hello?" it just continued to stare ahead, seeming not to register them, "are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler. I've got a friend, he can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?"

"Yes," it answered after a moment.

"What?" she frowned, concerned.

It raised its eyestalk to look at her, "I am in pain," it said wearily, "they tortured me. But still they fear me… do _you_ fear me?"

"No," she assured it, shaking her head.

"I am dying," it lowered its eyestalk.

"No, we can help!"

"I welcome death. But I am glad… that before I die… I met a human who was not afraid."

Rose looked at it, overwhelmed with sadness and pity, "isn't there anything I can do?"

"My race is dead. I shall die alone."

Rose blinked back the tears that pooled in her eyes before gently reaching out and rested her hand on the head of the Dalek.

"Rose, no!" Adam shouted.

But it was no use… the process had begun.

The place where Rose had put her hand suddenly burned bright orange. She snatched her hand back, looking down at it and then up at the Dalek. Lexie had stepped into the Cage, pocketing the blaster into her pocket as she stepped around the corner when she heard it…

"Genetic material extrapolated, initiate cellular reconstruction!" the Dalek shouted from within the chamber, the once weak and low voice growing louder and higher with each passing second… the amount of anger inside beginning to grow within. It burst out of its chains, sparks flying around it.

Lexie and Simmons ran in, "what the hell have you done?" he turned to the Dalek, he holding one of the torture devices in hand, and it pointed the sucker arm at him, "whatcha gonna do? _Sucker_ me to death?"

And the Dalek proceeded to do exactly that, placing the sucker over Simmons' face and sucking his head, the sickening sound of his muffled screams and skull slowly being cracked filled the chamber. Lexie grabbed Adam by the back of his shirt, pulling him backwards, ushering Rose quickly, "initiate total lockdown," Lexie shouted as they ran out, looking at the guards expectantly, " _now_!"

"Condition red!" a guard called int to comms, Lexie locking the Cage door and typing in a deadlock code into the panel, "repeat, condition red! This is not a drill!"

~DW~

Van Statten looked up as the code red warning was played over the system, amber lights flashing in every room… alarm blaring.

The Doctor, body soaked in sweat, looked at Van Statten, "release me if you want to live."

~DW~

The Doctor, Van Statten and a few guards ran out of the elevator and into Van Statten's office. Goddard was stood before a monitor linked directly to the Cage, having been issuing orders to the security team.

"You've got to keep it in that cell," the Doctor ordered, running over to the monitor.

Rose turned at the sound, arms folded over her chest as guilt filled her heart. She should have listened to Adam, one simple instruction was all she had to follow… and now she had someone's death on her hands, "Doctor, it's all my fault," she muttered.

"I've sealed the compartment," Lexie cut in, gently pushing her to Adam, "it won't be getting out, that lock's been deadlocked."

"The Dalek's a genius," the Doctor countered, though he looked impressed by her actions, "not even a deadlock seal can keep a Dalek out."

The team in the Cage slowly turned to look at the door, eyes widening in fear as the Dalek slowly began to break the deadlock seal. The door hissed open, Lexie pulling Rose and Adam into the hall as two soldiers took aim, "open fire!" one of the guards ordered.

"Don't shoot it. I want it unharmed!" Van Statten tried to order.

"Rose, get out of there!" the Doctor yelled, catching sight of Rose standing there.

The Dalek continued to advance on them, the bullets having no effect at all. The guard turned to his female partner, ordering her, "De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?"

"You, with me," she turned to three, leading the three of them away just as the Dalek approached the screen, smashing its sucker arm through it, cutting off all visuals with the team.

"Abandoning the Cage, sir!" the guard called over the audio.

Goddard turned and quickly moved to Van Statten's desk, switching on the computer as the Doctor and Van Statten looked over her shoulder, "we're losing power. It's draining the base," a new report flashed on the screen and her eyes widened, "oh, my god. It's raiding entire power supplies for the whole of Utah."

"It's downloading," the Doctor stated.

"Downloading what?" Van Statten frowned at him.

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down," Goddard reported, a hint of fear in her voice.

"It's not just energy," the Doctor explained, "that Dalek just absorbed the entire Internet. It knows _everything_."

"The Daleks survive in me!" the Dalek cried over the audio just as it fired its beam at the last remaining camera, all audio now cut.

"Sir, the cameras in the vault have gone down," Goddard stated, trying to access any cameras near the Cage.

"We've only got emergency power, it's eaten everything else, you've got to kill it now!" the Doctor yelled.

"All guards to converge in the Metaltron cage, immediately," Goddard ordered over the comms.

De Maggio led Rose, Lexie and Adam through another set of soldiers in a corridor, their guns trained at the exit, just waiting the Dalek, "civilians! Let them through!"

They ran past, Lexie lingering for a moment as she reached into her pocket… before Adam pulled her along until they were out of sight. The guards turned their guns and attention back at their target, when the guard from the Cage ran into view, barking orders into his comms, "cover the north wall. Red Division, maintain suppressing fire along the perimeter. Blue Division immediately…" before he could even issue another command the Dalek shot him from behind, his skeleton glowing briefly, before he fell to the ground. Immediately, the soldiers opened fire, but the bullets seemed to melt before they even touched the once damaged casing.

After all, what was one Dalek compared to a whole platoon of soldiers. Even though it was surrounded, the Dalek turned its laser arm at every soldier… its middle section twisting to exterminate the threats. No. not threats… _targets_.

~DW~

"Tell them to stop shooting at it!" Van Statten barked at Goddard.

"It's _killing_ them!" she all but yelled at him.

"They're dispensable, that Dalek is unique," he leant forward and grabbed the comm, "I don't want a scratch on its bodywork? Do you hear me?"

The sound of gunshots slowly ceased into it was completely silent and the trio looked at one another in horrified realisation… they weren't following orders no more.

Goddard just gave him a disgusted look, instead turning to address the Doctor, bring up a map of the base, "that's us right below the surface, that's the Cage, and that's the Dalek," she explained.

"This museum of yours… have you got any alien weapons?" he asked her.

"Lots of them, but the trouble is… the Dalek's between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive," Van Statten cut in, shaking his head at the idea of destroying his precious Dalek, "we could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there."

"Leaving everyone trapped with it?" the Doctor countered, looking at him, "Rose is down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that?" Van Statten stood up but the Doctor pointed at a spot on the map, "it's got to go through this area. What's that?"

"Weapons testing," Goddard answered.

"Give guns to the lawyers, technicians, anyone. _Everyone_. Only then have you got a chance of killing it." Goddard nodded, getting up from the computer as the Doctor quickly slid into her place.

~DW~

Rose had gone on ahead, Lexie and Adam falling behind slightly as they tried to catch their breaths. De Maggio was lingering nearby, her pistol aimed behind them in case the Dalek appeared.

"What were you thinking?" Lexie had to ask Adam, shaking her head, "telling a complete stranger about the Dalek was bad enough, but bringing her down into the Cage to have direct contact with it is another."

"It's not her fault," Adam quickly defended Rose, not himself, "how was she supposed to know that touching it would do _that_."

"I'm not blaming Rose," Lexie assured him. It was almost touching, to see Adam care so much for someone he'd only just met, but with all things considered this was not the time to see past his mistake. Yes, no one could have predicted that Rose touching the Dalek would cause some form of cellular regeneration, but based on previous reports touching one was never a good idea… Adam Mitchell might have just inadvertently cause the complete and total annihilation of the human race, "I'm blaming _you_ ," Adam's jaw dropped and he spluttered to defend himself, "if anything happens to her or any of us, it is on _your_ hands. No mine, not De Maggio and defiantly _not_ Rose's!"

Without giving him a chance to defend himself, she pushed herself forward until she joined Rose, the young woman still not looking a hundred percent herself, "you okay?" Lexie gently asked, placing a hand on the blonde's arm.

Rose jumped at the contact, eyes wide as she looked at Lexie closely, "yeah," Rose lied, clearing her throat as she offered a half-baked smile, "I found some stairs."

"Stairs will work," Lexie assured her, calling Adam and De Maggio over quickly, "Rose found some stairs," they stared at her in confusion, "it hasn't got any legs, it's completely _stuck_."

De Maggio glanced over her shoulder, the front of the Dalek coming into view, "it's coming! Get up!" she ordered, Lexie pulling Rose up the stairs as Adam stumbled behind them.

It stopped at the foot of the stairs, turning to look at them.

Adam breathed a let out a small sigh of relief before calling down to it, mocking it, "great big alien death machine. Defeated by a flight of stairs," he missed the glare Lexie sent him.

The Dalek's eyestalk turned to look up at them, seeing De Maggio training her gun at it, and then to Rose and Lexie stood side by side.

"Now, listen to me," the woman called down, "I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate, then I guarantee that Mr. Van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong. But people have died, and that stops. Right now. The killing stops, have you got that?" there was no reply, "I demand that you surrender, is that clear?"

Then it spoke a single word, a word that had De Maggio's hand trembling and Lexie all but shoving Rose up the stairs, "El-ev-ate," and it started to levitate in the air and float up the first few steps of the stairs.

"Oh my God," Rose breathed as she caught a glance of it advancing.

"Holmes, get them out of here," De Maggio ordered.

Lexie ushered Adam past them, keeping him close to Rose as they continued up the stairs.

"De Maggio," Lexie stopped short, looking between the advancing Dalek and the solider, "you'll die if you don't come with us."

De Maggio smiled slightly, turning her back to Lexie as the Dalek slowly got closer, "you have your mission Holmes," Lexie's eyes widened slightly, but she reached into her pocket to grip the blaster, "and I have mine… keep safe Holmes."

Adam and Rose were stood a few flights above, waiting for Lexie to catch up, before the three carried on. De Maggio took a deep breath and with shaky hands, fired without success at the Dalek and screamed as she was swiftly killed… the trio reaching the corridor. Lexie leading the terrified Brits.

That was another death, Adam grimly thought as he lagged slightly behind Lexie and Rose… another death on his hands because he wanted to impress a girl.

~DW~

"I thought you were the great expert, Doctor," Van Statten spat as the Doctor continued to work the monitor, occasionally looking at Goddard as she quietly relayed information to him, "If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate… there must be something it needs, everything needs something."

"What's the nearest town?" the Doctor suddenly asked, catching him off guard.

"Salt Lake City."

"Population?"

"One million."

"All dead. If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature, that's all it needs."

"But why would it do that?" he shouted, furious.

"Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it _loose_!" he glared at him for a moment before a direct feed into the weapon

A direct visual feed for the weapon testing area opened on the computer and the Doctor turned his attention to the men and women moving into position.

"The Dalek's surrounded by a force field," the Doctor began to explain, speaking into the comms, "the bullets are melting before they even hit home but it's _not_ indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot."

"Thank you, Doctor," one of the commanders answered back, scoffing slightly, "but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot. Positions!" he gave the signal and they readied their weapons. A few moment later Rose, Adam and Lexie ran into the middle of the area, "hold your fire! You three, get the hell out of there!" Lexie pushed them forward, running past the guards and just outside a hall as the Dalek slowly came into view.

The trio stood there for a moment, watching it, and the Dalek turned its attention to them. Its eyestalk drifted between them before it landed on Rose, just staring at her… only for Adam to drag her out of the line of sight.

"It was looking at me," Rose breathed, confused.

"Yeah, it wants to slaughter us!" Adam shouted.

Rose pulled her hand away from him, shaking her head at him, "I know! But it was looking right at me."

"So?" Adam was starting to grow impatient, half ready to just abandon her to save himself, "it's just a sort of metal eye thing, it's looking all around!"

"I don't know… it's like there's something inside looking at me, like… like it knows me."

Lexie put a hand on her arm, lab coat thrown on the floor and openly holding the small blaster, "You can think more on it later, right now we need to get out of here."

As the trio went deeper into the compound, the Dalek began its advance once more.

"On my mark…" the commander began as the Dalek began to asses the situation, "open fire!"

They all opened fire, some shots connection with the force field while others missed, not everyone in that room properly trained in fire arms.

"We've got vision," Goddard informed them with a frown.

"It wants us to see," he realised, glaring at the screen as they unknowingly made eye contact.

The Dalek slowly levitated into the until it was hovering near the ceiling. It shot at the fire alarm, causing the sprinkler system to activate and douse its enemies below. The bullets kept coming but it remained unaffected, paying them no attention, just aiming its laser at a man whose feet were firmly placed on the ground and openly firing. The rest of the team fell like flies, the water and laser combination electrocuting everyone in one swift kill. The only ones left were the commander and another weakling on the scaffolding.

"Fall back!" the commander ordered, "fall back!"

They didn't have a chance, the Dalek swiftly exterminating them before either man could truly react.

The office was deathly silent as they looked at the scene in horror, the Doctor looking away, his chest rising heavily in shock as he realised… he'd sent those men and women to their deaths without hesitation. Anyone who can shoot, _that's what he said_ , he had told himself he was nothing like the Time Lords during the War, sending inexperienced men, women and children onto the front lines.

But he'd done exactly that.

"Perhaps it's time for a new strategy, maybe we should consider abandoning this place," Van Statten muttered, stunned, now realising the true danger the Dalek posed.

"Except there's no power to the helipad, sir," Goddard reminded him, quietly furious with him, "we can't get _out_."

"You said you could seal the vaults," the Doctor suddenly looked up, remembering their previous conversation.

"It was designed to be a bunker," Van Statten began, going to the computer, "in the event of nuclear war, steel bulkheads…"

"There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive," Goddard looked to the Doctor.

"We've got emergency power, we can reroute that to the bulkhead doors," the Doctor suggested.

"We'd have to bypass the security codes, that would take a computer genius!"

"Good thing you've got me then," Van Statten cut in.

" _You_ want to help?" the Doctor scoffed, looking at him in disgust.

"I don't want to _die,_ Doctor, simple as that. Nobody knows this software better than me."

A monitor on the wall suddenly switched on, a direct visual feed of the Dalek standing in the weapons area.

"Sir…" Goddard called, noticing it first, tensing at the thought of being watched. The Doctor and Van Statten looked up to see it.

"I shall speak _only_ to the Doctor," the Dalek ordered.

The Doctor took a deep breath, straightening up and looked directly at the feed, "you're gonna get rusty."

"I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me."

"What's your next trick?"

"I have been searching for the Daleks."

"Yeah, I saw," he rolled his eyes, "downloading the Internet," he walked around the table to stand before the screen, "what did you find?"

"I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes…"

"And?" he waited for the response, to confirm what he had already said.

" _Nothing_ ," it answered, its voice rising as if it was… _scared_ , "where shall I get my orders now?"

"You're just a soldier without commands."

"Then I shall follow the primary order, the Dalek instinct to destroy! To conquer!"

"What for?" the Doctor sighed, exasperated, "don't you see? It's all gone. Everything you were, everything you stood for."

"Then what should I do?"

"Alright then," the Doctor nodded, bottom lip jutted out as he pretended to think of a something, "if you want orders… follow this one; _kill yourself_."

"The Daleks must survive!"

"The Daleks have _failed_. Why don't you just finish the job and make the Daleks extinct? Rid the Universe of your filth, why don't you just DIE?!" he shouted at the feed with almost nine hundred years' worth of rage, of pure and utter hatred, spit flying out of his mouth

The Dalek was silent for a moment before saying, "you would have made a good Dalek."

The screen went blank as the Doctor stared, dumbstruck… before he issued one last command, "seal the vaults."

Van Statten nodded, caught off guard before getting to work as the Doctor joined him, the two men typing away at separate computers, "I can leech power off the ground defences, feed it to the bulkheads," Van Statten informed him, smiling widely, "it's been years since I had to work this fast."

"Are you enjoying this?" the Doctor frowned at him.

"Doctor," Goddard leant over, "she's still down there."

He nodded at that, taking the desk phone and flashed his sonic over it, calling directly to Rose's phone.

"This isn't the best time," Rose panted.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Level forty-nine," Lexie answered when Rose quietly asked her, Rose handing her the phone as Lexie urged her onwards.

"You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off, bulkhead Level forty-six."

"Can't you stop them?"

" _I'm_ the one who's closing them," Lexie stopped on the stairs, eyes wide slightly, "I can't wait and I help either of you. Now for God's sake, _run_."

"We need to hurry!" Lexie shouted up at Rose and Adam.

"Done it," Van Statten called, "We've got power to the bulkheads."

"The Dalek's right behind them," Goddard reported from another computer, watching the Dalek's tracker slowly approach Lexie's own tracker.

"We're nearly there," Lexie panted out, pressing the phone to her ear, "just give her two seconds."

"Doctor, I can't sustain he power," Van Statten shook his head, "the whole system is failing," the Doctor looked over at him, the screen flashing red as power slowly was being drained, "Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads."

The Doctor paused for a few moments, listening to Lexie's panting breath as she practically ordered Rose and Adam to run, trying to summon the courage to potentially damn the three surviving humans to a fate his own kind had suffered… gods help him.

"I'm sorry."

And he pressed the enter key. The lockdown sequence beginning.

He tensed at the sound of a laser, sounding different to the Dalek's own laser, hearing Adam yelling at them to hurry up as he waited for the dreaded words.

"The vault is sealed," Van Statten confirmed.

The Doctor leapt out of his seat, "Rose, where are you? Rose, did you make it?"

"Yeah," it was Lexie who answered, panting, and muffled yells slowly reached the Doctor's ears, "she made it… I didn't,"


	3. Dalek - The Victory

Lexie leant her head against the sealed bulkhead door, not looking back at what she assumed would be the approaching Dalek, "I suppose this is, isn't it?" she asked, waiting for the Doctor to say something… but there was just silence. She wasn't sure if it was silent because he was thankful for Rose's safety, or if he regretted his choice to seal the bulkhead and trapping her down with the creature that had fought his people… but she didn't want to wait to find out, "I know we never met under good circumstances but I want you to know it wasn't your fault," she lifted her head up to look at the bulkhead, hearing Rose sobbing loudly on the other side, "and it wasn't your fault either Rose Tyler, you hear me?" the sobbing stopped for a moment, instead Rose was sniffling hard as she tried to listen to her saviour was saying, "you go find that Doctor of yours and help him stop the Dalek, and then never look back. Go travel the world or whatever it is you do and never stop… I need you to promise me that," Lexie took a shaky breath, steeling herself for what would happen next, "my name is Lexie Holmes and I am not afraid."

She turned to face the Dalek, throwing the overheated weapon to the floor as she stared down her killer with her head held high… hoping that if there were any entity watching over, it knew that she was _not_ afraid to die.

~DW~

"Exterminate!"

They all stood in silence as the sound of the laser firing at her echoed around the room.

It was Goddard who made the first move, ripping power cable from the back of the desk phone, her eyes filled with tears as she mourned the one person in this place that she considered a friend. The Doctor just looked ahead into the nothingness of the wall; throat thick with emotions as he processed what had happened.

It was all his fault, there was no way around that fact, it was his fault that a complete stranger had sacrificed themselves to ensure that _his_ companion could survive. Now, as he stood with his thoughts, different variables played out in his mind where Lexie hadn't been killed for her noble action, one where he had destroyed the Dalek in the chamber with a familiar tool instead of the electricity, another where they avoided the distress call entirely and Lexie Holmes would go on to live a complete life… would this new version of him be the man to find her family and friends and tell them that the woman they loved had died to save his friend? Or would he be the man to carry on and remember her name in a nightmare?

Was he the man who would make sacrifices to keep his companions safe?

"I killed her," he breathed, pulling him away from his thoughts.

"I'm sorry," Van Statten murmured, eyes to floor.

The Doctor turned to him, a unreadable look on his face, "I didn't even know her and she sacrificed herself for someone she had never even met. All of this happened because of _me_ , and you're _sorry_? I could have killed that Dalek in its cell. But _you_ stopped me."

"It was the prize of my collection! It actually looked _alien_!"

"Your _collection_?" the Doctor repeated, disgust creeping into his voice as he continued, "but what was it worth? Worth all those men's death? Worth Lexie?" there was no reply, "let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore. To be part of something greater."

"Exactly!" Van Statten almost cried, standing, "I wanted to touch the stars!"

"You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground tons of sand and dirt," the Doctor countered, voice full of recognisable rage, "and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get. And you took her down with you!" the furious expression on his face morphed suddenly, softening into a sad, grief-stricken look, before mournfully adding, "I didn't even know her."

~DW~

Lexie had closed her eyes when the Dalek had shouted its war cry, the fear she had proclaimed to not fear hitting her like a freight train, expecting to feel the pain she'd heard the soldiers shout when they'd been killed… but there was nothing. No pain, not even the faintest feeling she would have assumed death to feel like, absolutely nothing. So, she opened her eyes and she was struck with another wave of fear as she stood face to face with the Dalek, it just staring at her with its eyestalk never moving,

"go on then," she found herself saying, unsure why she was antagonising her would have been killer, "kill me," she waited for no reply, but found herself without one, so she glared at it, "why are you doing this?"

"I am armed," it finally spoke, threatening her, "I _will_ kill. It is my purpose."

"Everyone is dead because of you!"

"They are dead because of _her_."

Lexie's eyes widened, her stomach churning in her stomach at the accustation, "and now what? What the hell are you doing to do?!"

"I feel your fear."

"What did you expect?!"

"Dalek do not fear! Must not fear!" it shot at Lexie, missing her completely, shooting the wall on either side of her, "she gave me life!" it cried, growing hysterical and maybe even scared, "what else has she given me? I am contaminated!"

~DW~

Adam stepped out of the elevator with his arms around the silent Rose, her eyes red and puffy, as they stepped into Van Statten's office. Immediately, Rose rushed to the Doctor's side and threw herself into his arms, hugging the Time Lord tightly. Adam kept his distance, the Doctor now noticing his eyes were also red… but that wasn't enough. There were too many people in this room for the Doctor to forgive, Goddard was slowly proving herself to above the others, and Adam Mitchell was not to be forgiven.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor quietly asked Rose, just holding her for the moment.

Rose stepped back and rubbed her eyes once more, before she half-heartedly nodded. She was not alright, but she was sure the Doctor was feeling the same, they'd be a moment for them to speak about this and now wasn't the time.

Suddenly, one of the monitors on the wall sprung to life, revealed Lexie stood by the Dalek's side, "open the bulkhead or Lexie Holmes dies," it threatened.

Rose moved towards the screen, heart jumping in her chest at the sight, "you're alive!"

"I'm not so easy to kill," Lexie attempted to joke.

"I thought you were dead," it was the Doctor who spoke up, joining Rose by the screen.

"Open the bulkhead!" the Dalek cut in.

"Don't do it!" Lexie exclaimed.

"What use are emotions if you will not save the one who saved the one _you_ love?"

The Doctor looked stunned at the accusation and Rose turned to look at the Doctor in confusion. He didn't love Rose, or at least not in _that_ sense, but he did care for the young woman as he did with all companions, past and possibly future, but Rose was a friend, a _human_ … he wasn't sure he could

The Doctor looked stunned at that and even Rose turned to look at the Doctor in surprised confusion. He didn't love Rose, or at least not in _that_ sense, but did care deeply for the young woman as he had done with anyone who stepped foot in the TARDIS. But Rose was a friend, that was all, and the idea of loving anyone other than… well, he was certain that he wouldn't be doing that again. And to hear a Dalek talk about love, as though it had the faintest idea what love could actually mean… it was impossible.

He turned to Van Statten, "it killed her once," he walked around to the computer, "I can't let it do it again," and hit the return key, opening the bulkhead for Lexie and the Dalek to go through.

"What do we do now?" Van Statten cried, looking at the monitor in horror, "you bleeding heart, what the hell do we do?"

The Doctor just stared at him wordlessly.

"Kill it when it gets here!" Adam quickly suggested.

"All the guns are useless and the alien weapons are in the vault," Goddard reminded him.

"Only the catalogued ones," Adam replied.

Van Statten turned to him, eyebrows raised, while Adam only looked at him apologetically.

~DW~

The Doctor stood in Adam's workshop, going through a basket of the un-catalogued weapons while Rose looked at the discarded weapons closely. She'd been told to stay with Goddard and Van Statten for her safety, but she was having none of that. Lexie's life was on the line because of her, she owned the woman something for keeping her safe without having met her… but the Doctor was still adamant that Rose keep away from the Dalek, unsure what the genetic bond between the Dalek and her could do.

"Broken," he lifted one and threw it behind him carelessly, not caring for Adam's appalled look, "broken," again, another alien device was thrown over his shoulder, "hairdryer."

"Lexie was always collecting these sorts of things, I assumed it was because Mr. Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff," Adam began to explain, "and when he does, he wipes their memory. I assumed this stuff was in case she needed to fight her way out of this place."

"Does she seem like the type of fighter?" the Doctor frowned at that, "what type of person is Lexie?"

"Braver than most," Adam shrugged, Rose nodding in agreement.

And the Doctor had to agree, he couldn't imagine Adam willing to sacrifice himself for Rose or maybe even Lexie's sake and while he knew Rose was braver than most… there was most likely a line she'd cross to save her own skin, "I wholeheartedly agree, and I can't wait to meet her," he commented before picking up the last gun, "oh, yes. Lock and load!" he grinned, looking over at Rose, who nodded with a determined look on her face, before they raced out of the room.

~DW~

Lexie and the Dalek stood in the elevator to Van Statten's office, the atmosphere extremely tense, as Lexie watched in anticipation as the Dalek's laser attachment twitched, "I'm begging you, don't kill them. You didn't kill me."

The Dalek spun its eyestalk around to look at Lexie so fast that she had to jump backwards to avoid it, "but why not?" it asked her, "why are you alive? My function is to kill. What am I? What am _I_?"

The door opened to reveal Van Statten standing there, waiting,

"Don't move!" Lexie quickly warned them, "don't do anything, it's beginning to question itself."

The Dalek advanced towards Van Statten, "Van Statten. You tortured me. _Why_?"

Van Statten quickly backed away, obviously terrified, "I wanted to help you, I just… I don't know, I… I was just trying to help. I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you… I just wanted you better, I'm sorry," he looked back over his shoulder as he backed into the wall, "I'm so sorry! I swear! I just wanted to talk!"

"Then hear me talk now. Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Van Statten winced, slamming his eyes shut as he prepared for the inevitable sound…

"Exterminate!"

"Don't do it!" Lexie quickly yelled, "don't kill him!" the Dalek spun to face her and Van Statten visibly slumped against the wall, though Lexie kept her eyes on the eyepiece, "you don't have to do this anymore, there must be something else," Lexie tried to reason with it, unknowingly echoing Van Statten's earlier words to the Doctor, "everyone needs something, you must want something besides killing… what do you want?"

The Dalek's turned back to Van Statten then back to Lexie, "I want freedom."

~DW~

Lexie walked with the Dalek down of the corridor of Floor 01 until they were about in the middle, and it fired its laser at the ceiling making a small hole through which the sunlight flooded in, shining down on them both, "well there you have it," Lexie smiled at it, "you made it," she looked up and sighed at the sunlight, "never thought I'd see the sunlight again."

"How… does… it… feel?" The Dalek asked her.

Lexie stepped back at the sound of hissing, watching in confusion as the casing of the Dalek opened to reveal the mutated creature locked away inside. Lexie almost mistook it for an octopus, had it not been for the pale-pinkish skin colouration, large singular eye and brain-looking organ atop of its head. It lifted one of its feelers out to the sunlight as Lexie gazed at it, a strange look crossing her face, until she heard a voice behind her.

"Get out of the way!" the Doctor shouted.

She spun around to see him holding the gun, aiming directly at the exposed mutant, as Rose stood beside him, her former determined look had given way at the sight of the mutant. She looked at him in surprise, but made no effort to move.

"Lexie, get out of the way, now!"

"No," she shook her head, "just leave it alone, its harmless right now."

"That thing killed hundreds of people."

"Yet its not the one point the gun at me."

"I've got to do this. I've got to end _it_. The Daleks destroyed my home, my _people_! I've got nothing left!"

"Look at it." She stepped aside, gesturing towards it.

"What's it doing?" he asked, confused.

"It's the sunlight. That's all it wants!"

"But it can't…" he shook his head, not wanting to believe what it was seeing.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me, it's changing," Lexie told him, "it's almost acting like it's grown a conscience… but what about you Doctor?"

The Doctor lowered the gun, a look of uncertainty crossing his face, "I couldn't…" he breathed, close to tears as Rose stared at him. He looked to the Dalek, then to Lexie and then to Rose, "they're all dead."

"Why do we survive?" the Dalek asked him.

"I don't know."

"I am the last of the Daleks," the Dalek replied, struggling to speak without the casing, its feelers starting to tremble.

"You're not even that," the Doctor insisted, "Rose did more than regenerate you. You absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

"Into what?"

"Something new. I'm sorry," and the Doctor almost sounded like he meant it.

"Isn't that better?" Rose had to ask, unsure why the Doctor was sorry.

"Not for a Dalek."

"I can feel so many ideas, so much darkness…" the Dalek began, sounding slightly manic, "Rose… give me orders! Order me to die."

It closed its eye as emotion after emotion began to fill its head.

"I can't do that," Rose shook her head, paling at the thought.

"This is not life. This is sickness," it insisted, her face contorted in pity and disgust, "I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!"

Lexie moved to Rose's side, joined by the Doctor, as the pair waited for the dreaded command… "do it," she finally ordered, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?"

"Yeah."

"So am I," it informed them, before adding a feeble, "exterminate."

They watched as the Dalek casing closed around the mutant, and it slowly levitated into the air just below the hole as the golden balls detached themselves to surround the Dalek in a perfect sphere… then they heard something hum from behind them.

The Doctor and Rose didn't get a chance to react as four orange globes of energy struck the Dalek's casing, the golden balls clanging to the ground as they turned to see a stone-faced Lexie lowering the gun. She never intended on the Doctor being the one to kill the Dalek, and she was certain she wasn't going let it kill itself. The Dalek had killed who knows how many undercover agents, all of them either knowingly or unknowingly working to keep her mission ongoing. She'd hadn't planned on making it this far, knowing the files of the Dalek's stated they often took no prisoners… but like it had said, it was contaminated.

She'd planned on ripping the mutant out of its casing, crushing it under her boot or do something to know that it had suffered for its crimes against Earth… but the Doctor and Rose had caught her off guard. Her mission to destroy the Dalek was complete, and she hoped that everyone life that Dalek had killed would find their peace with whatever god they believed in.

They watched as the Dalek exploded with a shrill scream, whatever remained of its casing falling back to the floor with a loud crash. Lexie lowered the gun and with a nod, turned on her heel and walked out of the corridor while the Doctor and Rose looked on in horror and confusion.

~DW~

Goddard walked slowly up to Van Statten as he stood in the hallway, several guards behind him. She nodded and they roughly grabbed him by the shoulders, pushing him backwards as she followed them with a brisk walk.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he shouted, struggling against the grips.

"Two hundred personnel dead, and all because of you, sir," she replied coldly, "take him away, wipe his memory, and leave him by the road someplace."

"You can't do this to me! I am _Henry Van Statten_!"

"And by tonight, Henry Van Statten will be a homeless, brainless junkie living on the streets of San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento," she turned away with a flourish and a satisfied smile, "someplace beginning with 'S.'"

Her smile grew when she saw Lexie step out from around the corner, talking into her phone to her superior officers, "Kate, clean up can begin as soon as all the deceased have been removed from the site," she spoke into the phone, smiling slightly to Goddard as she waited for a reply, "all records of this place have been deleted from _any_ security bureau on the planet… I'll be back in New York by Monday," she hung up the phone, walking up to Goddard with a thoughtful look, "you know, I can get you a job with me…"

Goddard just shook her head, "I think this is enough alien to last me a life time," she admitted with a small laugh, though Goddard did look tired, "Someone needs to take over Statten's business, maybe make it into something better."

"Any parties in mind?"

"Not yet… but I'm sure I can find some people."

Lexie laughed, hugging Goddard briefly before sighing, "take care, Diana."

"Take care, Lexie."

~DW~

Rose and the Doctor stood by the TARDIS, the Doctor with his hand pressed against the door, looking up at the sign above pensively, "little piece of home," he mused aloud, "better than nothing."

"Is that the end of it?" Rose asked him softly, "the Time War?"

"I'm the only one left. I win…" he smiled slightly, "how about that."

Rose opened her mouth to say something, shook her head, before deciding on something else, "the Dalek survived… maybe some of your people did too," Rose suggested lightly, a hopeful smile on her face.

"I'd know, in here," he tapped his forehead, "feels like there's no one."

"Well then, good thing I'm not going anywhere," she smiled, bumping her shoulder into his arm.

"Yeah," he smiled back.

His smile, however, faded slightly as he watched Lexie and Adam approach them. He still wasn't happy about her turning on the Dalek in its vulnerable state, feeling that tactic was a little bit too Dalek for his likings… but she did justify herself afterwards, stating that the Dalek could have activated something far more dangerous than an apparent self-destruct, something the Doctor admitted was possible since some Daleks had been used a suicide bombers during the War. But still, to see a human he'd believed to be different from the rest, much like Rose was, kill a Dalek without hesitation… it'd been jarring.

"You two had better get out here," Lexie said, her arms crossed as she stared up at the TARDIS in confusion, "Statten's being dealt with and a clean up crew will be here within a few hours, base will be on complete lockdown," the Doctor faced her with his arms folded, "Goddard says that she'll liaison with the team but I know they're gonna fill it with cement, wipe this place off every databank on Earth."

"About time," Rose agreed.

"I'll have to go back home," Adam sighed.

"Better hurry up then," the Doctor checked his watch, "next flight to Heathrow leaves at 1500 hours."

"Adam was saying that all his life he's wanted to see the stars," Rose hinted to the Doctor.

"Tell him to go and stand outside then," he rolled his eyes.

"He's all on his own, Doctor. And he _did_ help."

" _Lexie_ helped, he almost got you trapped down there."

"No, he didn't," she scoffed.

"What're you talking about?" Adam cut in, both he and Lexie giving them odd looks, "we've got to leave!"

"Rose, he's a bit pretty," the Doctor commented suddenly, briefly eying Adam,

"I hadn't noticed," Rose replied, smiling innocently, "Lexie's a bit pretty as well."

At the mention of Lexie, his look wavered for a moment… not like he was eying her up, Lexie thought, more like sizing her up for something...

"On your own head," the Doctor raised his eyebrows sceptically and turned to the TARDIS,

"What're you doing?" Adam asked as the Doctor entered the box, "she said _cement_ ," Rose entered the TARDIS next, giving a subtle nod to Lexie to follow her in, "she wasn't joking, we're going to get sealed in…" Lexie took the next step inside, "Doctor?" he called into the box, sounding genuinely concerned for their sanity, "what're you doing standing inside a box? Rose?" he peered through the doors and stepped inside, and the doors shut.

The sound of wheezing and groaning filled the room and soon, they were off.

Destination… _unknown_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: and there we have it! The episode Dalek has been completed! I've been good little fic writer and planned ahead, writing what I want Lexie to do in Father's Day and a few different episodes that you could swap Rose's role around in and I can say I'm looking forward to getting to Boom Town/Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways! Boy do I have some plans for those episodes, whether or not the ideas will stick or not is another thing.
> 
> I'm not sure what else to say except thank you all for coming back to read this, for favouriting and following Uneasy Beginnings and I hope
> 
> Up next is The Long Game – The Anchors, how will Lexie deal with her first adventure in the TARDIS? Will she fare better then Adam or will she crumble? Will the Doctor get over Lexie's destruction of the Dalek or will there be tension between them? Find out next time.


	4. The Long Game - The Anchors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: and welcome back. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out but work keeps changing and that’s all I’m gonna say on that matter because I’m sure it’ll all change in the future. But without further ado, let’s get on with The Long Game!

~DW~

The TARDIS materialised in the corridor of a space station, the Doctor and Rose quickly stepping out before Adam and Lexie could follow. It had been quite the sight when Adam had stepped into the TARDIS, the box herself had let out a judgemental hum that had the Doctor chuckling under his breath, Adam’s jaw was practically dragging across the grated floor of the TARDIS; his eyes darting around the console room at every little detail he could register.

Lexie on the other hand had done well to keep her reaction somewhat muted, years of training kicking in to keep a decent poker face… but he had caught her eyes darting around the various buttons and levers, recognising some of the Earth-like devices as her mind raced trying to piece together how one man could pilot such a large console… it was almost like it was suited for at least three people at best.

“So, it’s two-hundred thousand,” the Doctor began to explain to Rose, peeking over his shoulder at Adam and Lexie, “it’s a spaceship… no wait a minute,” he snapped his fingers suddenly, looking around the area more closely this time, before quickly correcting himself, “space _station_ , and uh… go and try that gate over there,” he pointed ahead, “off you go!”

He leant against the TARDIS, waiting as Rose nodded to herself, turning to look at him, “two-hundred thousand?” she repeated.

“Two-hundred thousand.”

“‘Kay,” they shared a grin, the Doctor raising an eyebrow in amusement, before she called into the TARDIS, “Adam? Lexie? Out you come.”

Adam stepped out, his jaw dropping open once more, “oh my god,” he breathed, completely and utterly awed by the actual station, and gingerly took a few steps away from them. Lexie was next, the woman unable to keep her poker face, as her eyes widened and her own jaw dropped.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” Rose waved them off.

“Where are we?” Lexie had to ask, swallowing deeply as she slowly turned on the spot.

“Good question,” Rose smiled at her, nodding in approval, before turning to _examine_ the area, “let’s see. So, um… judging by the architecture, I’d say we’re around the year two-hundred thousand,” Adam nodded, repeating the year under his breath, completely mind boggled at the sights, “if you listen… engines. We’re on some sort of space station. Yeah. Definitely a space _station_. It’s a bit warm in here, they could turn the heating down… tell you what, let’s try that gate. Come on!” she pointed in the direction the Doctor had earlier, grabbing Adam’s hand as she led him off with the Doctor and Lexie not far behind.

Rose opened the gate, Lexie mumbling something under her breath as they passed it, leading them onwards into the room ahead, an observation deck that overlooked over the Earth, “here we go!” Rose grinned, “and this is…” she paused, awestruck, as she looked down at the Earth, Adam holding onto the railing for support as he dragged his way to her side, “… I’ll let the Doctor describe it.”

The Doctor smiled, standing at a control panel as he began, “the fourth and great bountiful human empire. And there it is. Planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons… population ninety-six billion. The hub of a galactic domain, stretching across a million planets, a million species… with mankind right in the middle…”

Neither the Doctor or Rose bothered to turn at the sound a breathy sigh and thump, Rose just pouted and her shoulders sagged already knowing _who_ had fainted.

“He’s your boyfriend,” the Doctor smirked at Rose.

“Not anymore,” Rose shot him a quick glare.

They did turn as Lexie stepped past them, her attention focused solely on the Earth below as it slowly spun, her heart stopping in her chest as she just looked at the planet she called home. A planet that had been invaded countless amounts of times, invasions that had her wondering if it would be the Earth’s last… well, last _everything_. It was becoming frequent to draw comparisons to different forms of media to invasions, despite them being solely fictional, they did have some footings in reality. From the Shoreditch Incident in the sixties to the Cyber-invasion in the late seventies and in recent years invasions like the Downing Street Incident and, she supposed, the Dalek in Van Statten’s proved that Earth was always on the edge of extinction.

And this was the proof that humanity would survive everything thrown at them. She hoped she had been part of this future in some way.

~DW~

“Come on, Adam,” the Doctor was saying as they walked further into the space station, his arm around Adam’s shoulder while Rose walked alongside Lexie, “be more like Lexie and open your mind. You’re gonna like this fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent…culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners…”

The Doctor was cut off mid-sentence as a burly looking man barged past the Doctor, shouting rudely, “out of the way!”

And suddenly, the entire floor they were on sprung to life. Food stalls opened up and peopled appeared from different lifts, the floor quickly becoming a hub of idle chatter and human life.

“One at a time…” a chef called as lines quickly began to form, their assistants barely keeping up with the amount of orders being thrown at them, “oi! You, _mate_! Stop pushing. Get back. I SAID, back!”

Lexie grimaced as she peered at the food being sold at a nearby stall, turning to the Doctor, “ _fine_ cuisine?”

“My watch must be wrong,” he frowned down at his watch, tapping it, before nodding to himself, “no, it’s fine… weird.”

“That’s what comes of showing off,” Rose teased him slightly, nudging him with her shoulder, “your history’s not as good as you thought it was.”

“My history’s perfect.”

“Well, obviously not…”

“They’re all _human_ ,” Adam spoke for the first time since fainting, “what about all the millions of planets? The millions of species? Where are they?”

“Good question,” the Doctor nodded, “actually, that _is_ a good question,” he jovially threw an arm around Adam’s shoulder, “Adam, me’ old mate, you must be starving.”

“No, I’m just a bit time sick.”

“Nah, you just need a bit of grub,” the Doctor pushed past the queue, leaning forward to the chef, “oi, mate, how much is a cronk burger?”

“Two credits twenty, sweetheart,” they answered, “now, join the queue.”

“Money. We need money,” he turned and walked over to a cash point, sonic in hand, “have to use a cash point,” Rose, Adam and Lexie followed him, watching as he held his sonic at the cash point and a silver slab of metal was deposited. He briefly looked at it and handed it to Adam, “there you go, pocket money. Don’t spend it all on sweets.”

Lexie frowned at him, making the move to follow _him_ instead of staying with Rose and Adam… not wanting to third wheel on their apparent date, “how does it work?” Adam called out to him, eying the slab bemusedly.

The Doctor turned back, “go and find out! Stop nagging me! The thing is, Adam, time travel’s like visiting Paris. You can’t just read the guide book, you’ve got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers…” Rose laughed as Adam and Lexie stared at him, confused, “… or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go on, do it!” he waved them off, Adam turning to walk into the crowd as Rose followed, “off you go then!” he called after her, grinning, “your first date.”

“You’re going to get a smack, you are,” Rose shook her head, pointing at him, “Lex, come on.”

“I’ll only be a third wheel on your date,” Lexie told Rose, half serious half joking, “I’ll go with the Doctor.”

The grin on Rose’s face grew considerably at that, turning to the Doctor with a cocked eyebrow, “now you two don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she winked at the Doctor before she turned after Adam, Lexie and the Doctor sharing an unamused look with one another.

“Don’t fancy hanging around the love birds?” the Doctor asked Lexie with a slight tease.

“If I wanted to third wheel, I’d go home for Christmas. Besides, I’m sure you bound to be more interesting then watching Adam drool over Rose.”

“Is that hostility in your tone?”

“Adam isn’t exactly my favourite person,” Lexie answered with a shrug, “I just think Rose could do better than him.”

Lexie was sure taking Adam along was bound to be a mistake, he’d been the reason the Dalek escaped Van Statten’s vault but she was sure the Doctor wasn’t aware of that… but it wasn’t her place to tell him that. If Adam was the better man then he’d make tell him what had happened, but she wasn’t about to. She would have sent him up to the helipad with Goddard if she had even the faintest idea that they’d be whisked away to the future, but she had just as unwillingly stepped into the box and been whisked away on this trip.

They walked on in an awkward silence, though it did slowly fade away as they small talk with one another; the Doctor talking about how he met Rose and the subsequent adventures that followed while Lexie told him about her time at Van Statten’s and about her past, well bits and pieces of her past. Lexie had to admit it was interesting hearing about how he met Rose, and if she was superstitious, she would have cited fate or destiny intervening to bring them together but despite everything Lexie had seen…

She was not superstitious. It had been sheer dumb luck that Rose had been working that shift, or been sent down to the basement of the shop, otherwise any other employee could have been whisked up in the Doctor’s adventure.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when the Doctor suddenly stopped, turning to two women who had been walking past, talking to one another, “erm… this is gonna sound daft,” the Doctor cut into their conversation, “but can you tell me where I am?”

“Floor 139,” the black woman of the pair gesutured to the wall above where they now stood, a rather unmissable ‘139’ painted onto the wall, “could they write it any bigger?”

“Floor 139 of what?”

“Must’ve been a hell of a party,” she scoffed, eying him oddly.

“Oh, you’re on Satellite 5,” the other young woman, a small brunette, quickly explained with a smile.

“What’s Satellite 5?” Lexie decided to ask this time.

“Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?” the first woman scoffed.

“Well like you said… one hell of a party.”

“Hang on, wait a minute, are you a test?” the second woman gasped suddenly, looking between them, “some sort of management test kind of thing?”

Lexie and the Doctor shared a look before turning back to the pair with large smiles, the Doctor acting like they’d been caught in the act, “you’ve got us,” he nodded, pulling the psychic paper from his pocket to show them, “well done. You’re too clever for us.”

“We were warned about this in basic training,” she turned to her colleague, “all workers have to be versed in company promotion.”

“Right,” the first woman replied, straightening herself up, turning to the Doctor and Lexie with a new attitude, “fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500 I’ll do anything.”

“Why, what happens on Floor 500?” the Doctor asked.

“The walls are made of gold. And you should know… Mr. Management,” she nodded, a forced polite smile on her face, “so… this is what we do,” she walked away from them to a setup of various screens displaying different news broadcasts, “latest news...sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day...spacelane 37 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant,”

Lexie raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Bad Wolf channel, something about it sounded familiar. She had to think for a moment, unsure where she would have heard it before but she had definitely heard it and then it struck her… _Van Statten_! It had been one of the call signs of the helicopters he owned, that and Phoenix, but even then, it had been Bad Wolf _One_. It must be a coincident, she told herself, there was no way it meant anything significant. Maybe it meant that Goddard and Van Statten’s _former_ company still had a presence in the future.

“I get it,” the Doctor cut in, pulling her out of her thoughts, “you broadcast the news.”

“We _are_ the news,” she corrected, smirking at the Doctor, “we’re journalists. We write it, package it, and sell it.”

~DW~

In a control room many floors above floor 139, a camera was focused on the conversation.

“600 channels all coming out of Satellite 5,” the black woman continued, “broadcasting everywhere.”

A man with white hair stood there, watching them closely, and pondered for a moment, “something… is wrong. Something… fictional,” he leaned over the shoulder of a man, his skin a pale blue and specks of ice covered his clothes, sitting before him, and pointed at the monitor, “those people…”

“Nothing happens in the whole Human Empire without it going through us,” the woman added with a laugh.

“Security check,” he ordered the man, “go _deep_.”

~DW~

“All staff are reminded that the canteen area now had self-cleaning tables,” a voice called over the speakers as Adam and Rose dossed about in the canteen, “thank you!”

Adam sat at a crowded table, trying his best to not stare at the passing humans and the _interesting_ food they carried, as Rose stood next him, offering him a paper cup, “try this,” she said, “it’s called ‘zaffic,’ it’s nice. It’s like a, um, slush puppy.”

“What flavour?” he asked.

“Um,” she took a sip of it, eyebrows furrowing as she tried to work it out, and frowned, “sort of… beef?”

“Oh, my god,” he groaned, his face screwing up at the concept of drinking meat as Rose just laughed, “it’s like everything’s _gone_. Home, family, everything.”

Rose looked at him, concerned, but also in understanding, she’d gone through the exact same when she’d first travelled with the Doctor. It was never easy to imagine a world without family. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, “this helps… the Doctor gave it a bit of a top-up. Who’s back home, your mum and dad?”

“Yeah.”

“Phone ‘em up,” she handed him the phone.

“But that’s one hundred ninety-eight thousand years ago.”

“Honestly, try it. Go on!”

He took the phone hesitantly, “is there a code for planet Earth?”

“Just dial!” she laughed.

And he did just that, putting it to his ear, expecting nothing… until he heard, “I’m sorry we’re not in,” it was his mother’s answering machine!

“It’s on!” he gaped at her, eyes widening in shock.

“Please leave a message,” it finished, “thanks, bye!”

The tone sounded, snapping him out of his shocked state, “hi, It's...it's me. I've sort of gone...travelling. I met these people...and we've gone travelling together. But, um...I'm fine...and I'll call you later. Love you. Bye," he ended the call gleefully, "that is just…"

An alarm suddenly sounded and everyone around them started to abandon the canteen, Rose and Adam just looking around, unsure what to do.

“Oi!” the Doctor shouted over to them, “Mutt and Jeff! Over here!”

Rose beamed at him, immediately getting up and joining them while Adam paused for a moment, holding Rose’s phone. He quickly looked at the trio in the distance, more so Lexie, before slipping it into his pocket and following.

~DW~

The white-haired man bit his thumb nail as he waited for the results from the security check.

“Security check cleared,” the computer announced. 

“No, something’s _wrong_ ,” he rubbed her eyes, “I can taste it. Tiny little shift in the information. Someone down there shouldn’t be here,” he looked at the monitor, showing the small group stood together, before leaning down between two staff, “double check. Triple check. Follow _them_.”

~DW~

The Doctor, Lexie, Rose and Adam stood off to the side in a white room with what looked like an octagonal table in the middle with a reclining sort of high-tech chair on top of it.

The Doctor, Lexie, Rose and Adam stood off to the side in white room with what looked like reclining sort of futuristic chair sat in the middle of a raised octagonal platform. A few humans sat cross-legged around the table before two pads with hand imprints on them.

The black woman stepped into the middle of the platform, addressing the room, “now everybody behave. We have a management inspection,” she smiled over to the Doctor and Lexie, “how do you want it? By the book?”

“Oh, right from scratch, thanks,” the Doctor nodded.

She turned away, "Ok, so, ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided, or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Kadainy," she looked to the Doctor again, "that's Cathica with a 'C,' in case you want to write to Floor 500 praising me, and please... _do_..." the Doctor grinned and gave a non-committal jerk of his head, "now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and be non-biased. That's company policy," she shot a smile at the Doctor.

"Actually...it's the law," the second woman from before quickly added.

“Yes, thank you, _Suki_ ,” Cathica cut in, irritated, “okay, keep it calm...don't show off for the guests...here we go," she took a deep breath and got onto the chair, lying down, "and...engage safety..."

The staff moved to hold their hands out over their respective pads, the eight walls of the room lighting up as they did so, the group looking around at it. Cathica clicked her fingers and a small door opened in her forehead, revealing just the tiniest part of the frontal lobe. The Doctor looked mildly disgusted; Lexie’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion while Rose looked startled. Adam, however, leaned forward to try and get a better look. The staff placed their hands down to the pads and closed their eyes.

“And 3… 2… and spike,” Cathica called out just as the device above the chair shot a blue light straight down to her brain.

"Compressed information, streaming into her," the Doctor commented as they watched, "reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain _is_ the computer."

"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius," Rose said.

"Nah. She wouldn't remember any. There's too much, her head would blow up," he walked forward slowly, heading around the octagon, Rose and Lexie following him as they circled the room, “the brain’s the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets."

"So, what about all these people round the edge?" Lexie had to ask.

"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her," the Doctor said as Rose knelt down by one, "and they transmit 600 channels. Every single fact in the empire beams out of this place," he finished his circuit as he came to stand beside Adam, leaning against the railing, “now, that’s what I call _power_.”

Lexie shook her head, looking over at him, “that’s what I call brainwashing.”

~DW~

“Analysis confirmed,” the computer stated, “security breech.”

“I _knew_ it!” the white-haired man cheered, “which one? It’s someone inside that room, which one?”

The camera shifted from person to person gathered around Cathica, “isolating breech.”

“Come on, show me. Who is it?”

The camera lingered on Lexie as she joined the Doctor and Adam off to the side.

~DW~

“You alright?” Rose asked Adam.

“I can see her _brain_ ,” he frowned, turning a little pale at the sight.

“Do you want to get out?”

“No… no,” he shook his head quickly, “this technology, it’s… it’s amazing.”

“This technology’s wrong,” the Doctor cut in.

Rose looked over, “trouble?”

“Oh yeah,” he nodded, catching her eye.

Rose beamed at him.

Just as there was a slight shuddering sound, and Suki twitched.

~DW~

“That’s it!” the white-haired man called, pointing at the monitor, laughing triumphantly, “yes! She’s the liar,” the camera focused on Suki, “intercept and scan. Gotcha.”

~DW~

Suki gasped, pulling her hands off the pads as if it had shocked her. The other members of the staff were forced to lift their own hands too, and the lights on the walls quickly turned off. The compressed information stopped streaming into Cathica, the door in her head closing as Suki rubbed her hands, breathing heavily.

“Come off it, Suki,” Cathica turned to her, annoyed, “I wasn’t even halfway, what was that for?”

“Sorry, must’ve been a glitch…” she remarked quietly as Cathica just stood up.

~DW~

"Her information's been tampered with," the man stated, watching the scene unfold, "there's a second biography hidden underneath..."

There was a sudden roaring above him and he spun around, looking up at something on the ceiling.

"Yes, sir?" he answered, and he was greeted to more roaring, "absolutely, sir. Yeah, well, her data was encrypted so there's no way we could've found her sooner," the tone of the roar changed this time now angry this time, “yeah. I…sorry, sir," he gave a small thumbs up, "absolutely," before spinning urgently to one of the women working, "get her up here. _Now_!"

~DW~

There was a small chime in the room as a speaker suddenly sounded, “promotion!” with a project on one of the walls.

“This is it,” Cathica’s eyes widened, gripping her hands together, praying hard, “come one. God, make it me. Come on, say my name,” the small group looked over at her in mild concern, but she screwed her eyes shut and slowly began to plead, “say my name, say my name…” she quickly opened her eyes, hoping her prayers had been answered…

“Promotion for… Suki Macrae Cantrell,” the words flashed on the projection as Suki’s mouth dropped open. Cathica, had shared a similar reaction, but she found herself screaming internally, “please proceed to Floor 500.”

Suki stood up and stared at the projection, blinking multiple times to see if she was truly seeing what had happened, “I don’t believe it,” she breathed, eyes wide in awe, “Floor 500…”

“How the hell did you manage that?” Cathica glared, “I’m above you!”

“I don’t know, I just applied on the off-chance… and they said _yes_!”

“That’s so not fair. I’ve been applying to Floor 500 for _three years_!”

“What’s Floor 500?” Rose leant over to ask the Doctor.

“The walls are made of gold,” he replied, solemn.

~DW~

The Doctor, Lexie, Rose and Cathica were stood by the lift on Floor 139 to say goodbye to Suki.

"Cathica, I'm gonna miss you!" Suki cried to Cathica, "Floor 500..." she spun around to the Doctor and Lexie, "Thank you!"

"But we didn't do anything," Lexie frowned, shaking her head.

"Well, you're my lucky charms!" Suki insisted, smiling.

"Alright!" the Doctor nodded, "I'll hug anyone!"

Suki laughed and hugged the Doctor followed quickly by Lexie as Cathica looked angrily anywhere but her.

“Come one,” Rose walked over to Adam, who was sat a short distance away, “it’s not that bad…”

“What, with the… the head thing?” he asked.

"Yeah, well she's closed it now!"

"Yeah but...it's everything. It freaks me out. And I just need to...if I could just..." he struggled to find the words, "...cool down. Sort of, acclimatize."

"How d'you mean?"

"Maybe...I could just go and sit on the observation deck?" he suggested, looking at her, "would that be alright?" she nodded, again in understanding, "soak it in, you know, pretend I'm a citizen of the year 200,000..."

"Do you want me to come with you?" she asked, concerned.

“No, no, you stick with the Doctor and Lexie. You'd rather be with them anyway," Rose just looked away, knowing it was true, "It's gonna take a better man than me to get between you and them. Anyway, I'll be on the deck."

He got up and turned to go when Rose fumbled in her pocket, "here you go...take the TARDIS key. You know, just in case it gets a bit too much."

"Yeah, like it's not weird in there," he laughed.

Rose still handed him the key anyway. He nodded briefly and walked away, leaving Rose standing alone, a small satisfied grin coming to his face as he walked off, failing to notice the narrowed eyes of Lexie watching him until he disappeared around a corner.

"Oh, my God, I've got to go!" Suki's eyes widened, looking between them, "I can't keep them waiting…" she picked up her bag and rushed into the lift, "I'm sorry!" she shouted back as it pinged and opened, running inside, "say goodbye to Steve for me!"

The Doctor, Rose and Lexie smiled at her as the lift doors began to close.

“Bye!” she waved.

The three waved cheerily while Cathica looked away sourly, “good riddance,” she muttered.

“You’re talking like you’ll never see her again,” the Doctor turned to her, “she’s only going upstairs.”

“We won’t. once you go to Floor 500 you never come back.”

The Doctor looked at the closed lift doors with a frown, his brows furrowed. Lexie’s turned to question Cathica, only to find that she had walked off. She dashed after her, the Doctor and Rose following close behind, “have you ever been up there?” she asked.

“No,” she replied bitterly, “you need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to 500 except for the chosen few."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: and so it begins, Lexie’s first official adventure in the TARDIS and already Adam is causing trouble… not a surprise to anyone, just wait until Lexie finds out what he’s gonna do.


	5. The Long Game - The Editors

Suki paced agitatedly in the lift, her body a mixture of excitement and nerves as she wondered if the stories were true until it came to a stop and the doors opened with a slight ping. She looked out beyond the doors only to see the floor covered with a thin layer of ice and snow… snow which was gently falling from the ceiling. She slowly picked up her bag and walked hesitantly out of the lift into a corridor. She looked around nervously when the doors bleeped and shut behind her. Scared, Suki threw her weight against the doors, trying to pull them open, but it was useless she was _trapped_. She took a deep breath before she turned around and pulled a torch from her bag. She turned it on and cautiously started to walk down the corridor.

A small sound caught her attention from the end of it and she slowly followed it, only to find herself in what looked like a disused room much like the one she worked in, octagonal platform, chair and pads. She stepped towards the chair, reaching out to touch it… when a rotten corpse fell into view. She gasped, turning around with the torch to see eight other corpses sitting around the platform.

She hurried out the room and back into the corridor, her heart racing, when she caught sight of light down the hall. She ran towards it, hoping the find someone to get her back to Floor 139, but instead found herself in a control room of sorts. There was a line of people sat before the controls, none of them registering her, their hands on the pads, as a man stood there with white hair, waving her over.

She put the torch back in her bag and walked up some steps towards him, “who’re you?”

“I’m the Editor,” he introduced.

“What’s happening? There’re… bodies out there, what’s going on?”

“Well, while we’re asking questions, would you please confirm your name,” he snapped his fingers and a projection of Suki appeared between them, clearly recorded from when she had applied for her job.

“My name is Suki Macrae Cantrell,” the projection stated, “I was born 1-9-9 apostrophe 8-9 in the Independent Republic of Morocco…”

“Liar,” the Editor scoffed.

Suki looked over at him, shocked.

“Hobbies include reading and archaeology. I’m not an expert or anything, I just like digging.”

“Lair,” he repeated, smirking slightly as he caught the way she was staring at him with more defiance. A simple crack in the shell. He snapped his fingers again, the recording skipping forward to a different point,

“I want to work on Satellite 5 because my sister can’t afford University,” the Editor just shook his head at the lie, “and the pay scheme is really good…”

“Lair!” he shouted as she stared at him defiantly, her entire demeanour changed, “let’s look at the _facts_ , shall we?” he snapped his fingers again and another projection started, this time of Suki in a trench, waring army attire as she fired a gun while shouting to her comrades, “ah, hidden behind a genetic graft, but that’s still _you_. Eva San Julienne. Last surviving member of the Freedom 15! Hmm, self-declared anarchist, is that right?”

With no need to keep the meek and mild-mannered Suki Cantrell mask on, the battle born Eva Julienne swift pulled out a gun from her bag and aimed it at the Editor, “who controls Satellite 5?” she questioned, her voice now harsh and cold.

The Editor raised his hands slowly in the air, a look of shock crossing his face… before it gave way to laughter, “there’s the _truth_!” he lowered his hands.

“The Freedom Foundation has been monitoring Satellite 5’s transmissions. We have absolute proof that the facts are being manipulated. YOU are lying to the people.”

“Oh, I love it. Say it again.”

“This whole system is corrupt,” she disengaged the safety and stepped closer, “who do you represent?”

“I’m merely a humble slave. I answer to the Editor-in-Chief.”

“Well, who is he? Where is he?”

“He’s overseeing everything. Literally, _everything_. If you don’t mind, I’m going to refer this upwards,” he clicked his fingers and pointed upwards.

The roaring started once more.

Eva immediately aimed her gun at the ceiling, “what is that?” she asked, fear seeping into her voice.

“Your boss. This has always been your boss. Since the day you were born.”

Eva opened fire upon the creature as it bore down on her, but the weapon proved ineffective.

All she could was scream…

~DW~

Adam entered the observation deck, looking out over the Earth for a moment before turning his attention to the computer behind him. He placed his hand on the hand pad, “give me access,” he said as the computer sprung to life. He snatched his hand away and paused, “I can learn _anything_ ,” he muttered to himself, nodding to himself as he placed his back on the groove, “let’s try… uh, computers. From the 21st Century to the present date, give me the history of the Microprocessor,” the computer began to stream the information into Adam as he looked on, amazed, “oh my God…”

~DW~

Cathica entered the workroom with the Doctor, Rose and Lexie in tow, “look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance, can’t you give it a rest?”

“But you’ve never been to another floor?” Lexie continued to question her, the Doctor just watching her, “not even the floors below?” she shook her head, her hands settling on her hips while the Doctor settled himself on the high-tech chair while Rose leaned back on it, both of them observing Lexie closely.

“I went to Floor 16 when I first arrived. That’s medical, that’s when I got my head done, and then I… I came straight here. Satellite 5, you work, eat, and sleep on the same floor. That’s it, that’s all,” she paused, looking between them, “you’re not management, are you?”

“At last!” the Doctor grinned at her, “she’s clever!”

“Yeah, well, whatever it is, don’t involve me. I don’t know anything.”

“Don’t you even ask?” the Doctor asked.

“Well, why _would_ I?”

“You’re a journalist!” Lexie all but yelled, “and I’ve deal with my fair share of journalists and they _always_ ask questions!” she shook her head and asked her a question Adam had pointed out earlier, “why’s the crew human?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“There’s no aliens on board,” the Doctor pushed, nodding at Lexie’s question, “why?”

“I don’t know. No real reason, they’re not banned or anything.”

The Doctor gave the empty room a quick look, “then where are they?”

“I suppose immigration’s tightened up,” she began, though they could tell she was stumped, “it’s had to. What, with all the threats.”

“What threats?” the Doctor asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, growing frustrated at how lost she felt, “all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away,” she turned to walk around a bit, the trio watching her intently, “oh, and the government on Traffic 5’s collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see… just… lots of little reasons, that’s all.”

“Adding up to one great big fact and you didn’t even notice,” the Doctor sighed.

“Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite 5 would have seen it. We see everything.”

"I can see better. This society's the wrong shape. Even the technology."

"It's _cutting edge_!"

"It's _backwards_! There's a great big door in your head! You should've chucked this out _years_ ago."

"So, what do you think is going on?" Rose frowned.

"It's not just this space station. It's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The Great and Bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."

"And how would _you_ know?" Cathica scoffed.

"Trust me," the Doctor turned to her, "Humanity's been set back about ninety years,”

Lexie glanced over at Cathica, “when did Satellite 5 start broadcasting?”

“Ninety-one years ago,” Cathica breathed.

The Doctor nodded as Cathica looked away, shaken.

~DW~

Adam stood in front of the computer terminal on Rose’s mobile, “mum, dad, KEEP this message, okay? Whatever you do, DON’T erase it. _Save it_. You got that?” he placed his hand on the pad once more, speaking into the mobile as the information streamed into him, “the microprocessor became redundant in the year 2019, when it was replaced by a system called SMT, that’s Single Molecule Transcription…”

The information suddenly cut off as the words ‘Floor 16’ appeared on screen.

“No, no, no, no, no, _no_!” he groaned, tapping the screen, “what’re you doing! Come back! Come," he kicked the base of the computer, looking behind him to check if anyone heard him and then back at the computer, “why are you doing that?” but the words stubbornly remained, “what’s Floor 16? What’s down there?”

~DW~

Adam stepped off the lift to Floor 16, looking around at the room lined with desks, people sitting behind them, talking to members of staff dressed in red. He walked past them all until he reached one on the end where a nurse was sat, unoccupied.

“Sorry,” he approached her slowly, “um, Floor 16, that’s, um… what do you cover?”

“Medical non-emergency,” she replied.

“Right, wrong floor, I’m having technical difficulties. My screen keeps freezing, blocking me out.”

“No, that’s medical, there must be something wrong with your chip.”

“Yes. Yeah, of course, yeah,” he laughed slightly before pausing, “I haven’t got one.”

The nurse rolled her eyes, “no wonder you can’t get a screen to work. What are you, a… student?”

“Yes, yeah, I’m um…” he quickly began to think, sitting down before her, “I’m on a research project from,” he trailed off, eyebrows furrowing slightly, before he answered, “the University of… _Mars?”_

She rolled her eyes again, “the Martian Boondocks. _Typical_.”

“Yep.”

"Well, you still need chipping."

“So… does that mean like… brain surgery?”

"That's an old-fashioned phrase...but it's the same thing, yes."

"Oh...ok...never mind..." he leaned back, making the move to go, before he asked, "but if I get a chip, that means I could use _any_ computer."

“Absolutely. You’ll… have to pay for it. They’ve stopped subsidising.”

“Oh!” Adam’s eyes widened, frowning slightly, “Right. Sorry. Wasting your time. Thanks,” he got up and made the move to leave, stopping just a few steps away when he felt something clink in his pocket, “hold on…can I use this?” he held up the credit stick.

“That’ll do nicely,” she smiled.

~DW~

Adam sat on something similar to a futuristic dentist chair in a stark white operating room when the nurse approached him, “it all comes down to two basic types,” she began to explain, pushing him back on the chair and putting a strange metal contraption above his head, “Type One, the head chip. Inserted into the back of the skull, one hundred credits, there’s the chip…” she placed the chip on her finger and showed it to him, “tiny. Invisible. Type Two is the full info-spike.”

“Oh, um, that’s the,” Adam frowned, pointing to his forehead and tried to imitate the spike noise, “ _thing_.”

“That’s the one. It does cost ten thousand.”

“Oh, well I um, I couldn’t afford it, then,” he let out a sigh of relief, having regrets about all of this.

“Not at all! Turns out, you’ve got unlimited credit,” she held out the credit stick for him to see.

“No, but… I couldn’t have it done. I mean… that’s gotta hurt, hasn’t it?”

“Painless. Contractual guarantee.”

He laughed nervously, shifting in the chair, “no, my mate’s waiting upstairs, I can’t have major surgery.”

“It takes ten minutes. That sort of money buys a very fast pico-surgeon.”

Adam tensed as she circled the chair in a somewhat predatory nature. He smiled, still unsure, “no, but I… I couldn’t, no, _no_. It’s…”

The nurse leaned in close to him, “Type One, you can interface with a simple computer. Type Two, you _are_ the computer. You can transmit any piece of information from the archive of Satellite 5, which is just about the entire history of the Human Race. Now… which one’s it gonna be?”

~DW~

Cathica stood anxiously just off to the side as the Doctor, Lexie and Rose as the Doctor scanned the side of a door with the sonic, “we’re SO gonna get in trouble,” she hissed at them, moving to stand by Rose and Lexie, “you’re not allowed to touch the mainframe, you’re gonna get told off.”

“Rose, tell her to button it,” the Doctor called over his shoulder.

“You can’t just vandalize the place, someone’s gonna notice!” Cathica whispered urgently at him.

But the Doctor just wrenched the door open.

~DW~

“I don’t understand!” the Editor yelled angrily as he watched the group of travellers and Cathica on a live feed, “we did a _full security scan_. That man and those women were there when we found Suki Macrae Cantrell. There were no indications about them. And yet here they are…” he knelt down by Eva, who was now sat at a terminal, staring ahead blankly, ice crystals slowly began to form on her skin, hard at work, “clearly acting outside the parameters,” he looked back at the monitors, “fascinating,” he leapt to his feet as the creature on the ceiling started growling again, “yes sir. Absolutely. At once,” he walked along the line of works, “check him. Double check him. Triple check him. Quadruple.”

The creature just rumbled.

~DW~

“This is nothing to do with me, I’m going back to work,” Cathica backed away as the Doctor continued to fiddle.

“Go on then!” he just shouted, “see ya!”

She stopped, glaring, “I can’t just leave you, can I?!”

“If you wanna be useful, get ‘em to turn the heating down,” Rose cut in, looking at her, “it’s boiling. What’s wrong with this place, can’t they do something about it?”

“I don’t know, we keep asking. Something to do with the turbine…”

“Something to do with the turbine,’’” the Doctor mockingly repeated.

“Well, I don’t know!”

“Exactly! I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose, look at Rose,” Rose smiled slightly, “Rose is asking the right kind of questions.”

“Oh, thank you,” Rose laughed.

“Why is it so hot?”

“One minute you’re worried about the Empire and the next it’s the central heating!” Cathica rolled her eyes.

“Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing’s very important.”

And then he accidently snapped a bunch of wires off the wall.

Cathica looked away, already knowing they’ll be caught for this.

~DW~

“Security scan complete,” the computer announced.

“Well, who are they?” the Editor asked, “who is he?”

“He is no one.”

He laughed, though he frowned in confusion, “what does _that_ mean?”

“He is no one.

“What, you mean he has a fake ID?”

“He has no identification.”

“But _everyone’s_ registered. We have a census for the entire _Empire_.”

“He is no one.”

“What, he doesn’t exist? Not anywhere?”

“He is no one.

“What about the blonde?”

“She is no one.”

“Then what about Asian the one?”

“She is no one.”

“All of them?!” he cried out, incredulous, “well! We all know what happens to non-entities,” he grinned wickedly, “they get _promoted_ ,” he turned to another enslaved staff, patting her on the shoulder, “bring them up.”

~DW~

The Doctor smiled as he managed to hack into the mainframe, turning the screen to Cathica, “here we go, Satellite 5. Pipes and plumping. Look at the layout.”

He moved to stand behind her so she can see clearer, but she frowned as she examined the screen, “this is ridiculous. You’ve got access to the computer’s core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange… and you’re looking at _pipes_?”

“But there’s something wrong,” the Doctor replied, raising an eyebrow.

She matched his raised eyebrow for a moment before turning to look at the screen, brows furrowing at the readout, “I suppose…”

“Why, what is it?” Rose frowned as she and Lexie peered at the screen in confusion.

“The ventilation system. cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out… channelling massive amounts of heat DOWN.”

“All the way from the top,” the Doctor nodded.

“Floor 500,” Lexie stated, as Rose looked up.

“Something up there is generating tons and tons of _heat_.”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m missing out on a party,” Rose grinned, looping her arm with Lexie, “it’s all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?”

“You can’t, you need a key,” Cathica reminded them.

“Keys are just codes, and I’ve got the codes right here,” he gestured to the screen, taping a few keys, “here we go, override 215.9.”

“How come it’s giving _you_ the code?”

The Doctor looked up at a nearby security camera, “someone up there likes me.”

~DW~

The Editor laughed to himself as he watched them on the feed, clasping his hands together as he began to prepare himself for what would happen next.

~DW~

Adam ran a hand over his forehead, eyes widening in surprise at how normal it looked, as the nurse stood beside him, smirking slightly.

“I told you it was painless,” she stated, “no scaring, you see? Perfect success.”

“How do I activate it?” he asked her.

“It’s a personal choice. Some people whistle. I know one man who triggers it with ‘Oh, Danny Boy.’ But you’re set on default for now. That’s a click of the fingers.”

“So, you mean, I just…”

The nurse raised her fingers, ready to click, “click.”

~DW~

The lift opened on Floor 139, Rose, the Doctor, and Lexie stepped into it, Cathica stopping outside it.

“Come on, come with us!” Rose urged the woman with a smile.

“No way!” she shook her head, quickly stepping back.

“Bye!” the Doctor waved.

“Well, don’t mention my name! When you get in trouble, just don’t involve me!”

“That’s her gone,” the Doctor stated as Cathica stormed off, “Adam’s given up. Looks like it’s just the three of us,” the Doctor grinned at both of them on either side of him.

“Yeah,” Rose smiled back.

“Good.”

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Lexie nodded, quickly growing excited.

They all shared a grin with each other as the Doctor slotted a card into the controls, and the door slid shut. He took Rose and Lexie’s hands into his own, winking at the two women.

~DW~

Adam clicked his fingers, the door opening in his head, revealing his brain. He fingered the shutters round the opening with his mouth open for a few seconds before clicking his fingers again to close it, hands trembling. He flopped back into his seat, slowly turning a light shade of green, “oh, my God,” he gasped, “I’m gonna be sick,” he wretched terribly and a vomit coloured ice cube slid out of his mouth. He took it between his fingers, looking at it in confusion.

“Special offer,” the nurse explained, “we installed the vomit-o-matic at the same time. Nano-termites have been placed in the lining of your throat. In the event of sickness…” she held out a bowl for him, “they freeze the waste.”

Adam placed the ice cube into the bowl, peering down at it as a terrible sense of regret washed over him.

~DW~

The lift opened to reveal Floor 500, the image of golden walls fading quickly as they stepped onto the floor. Whatever excitement Lexie had been feeling was slowly melting away into anxiousness as she slowly reminded herself that Cathica had stated that no one _ever_ came back, she watched as Rose took bold steps into the icescape while the Doctor simply looked around.

“The walls are not made of gold,” he muttered, caught in surprise himself, and he looked to Rose and Lexie, “you two should go back downstairs.”

“Tough,” Rose remarked, continuing to walk ahead.

The Doctor watched her go for a moment, briefly looking back to Lexie who nodded, and then followed her.

Lexie tugged her jacket tightly round herself as the slight chill of the floor got to her and she began to theorised on what could lie ahead. She learnt that over the years that expecting the worst was always the best, so the idea that the simply changes to the piping would be simply the solution to this problem was quickly off the table, so she began to focus on the worst. It had to be alien, she considered briefly, with the way the Doctor had said that everything was backwards proved that a human wasn’t capable of doing something like this… not that she knew what that _something_ was yet, but it had to be bad. It could be abductions or some sort of culling, a A.I. system that chose designated people to be slaughtered to ensure that capacity wasn’t breached, but there would have been missing posters or some sign that people feared going to Floor 500 but the people seemed to more reluctant to remain on their current floor.

Whatever lurked on this floor was dangerous, no matter what reasoning she gave, and it meant keeping them safe. The moment she could find something that could be used as a weapon, Lexie was gonna pick it up and use it if she had to… hopefully it wasn’t something similar to a Dalek.

They soon found themselves in a large control room, the Editor standing before them, watching the screens.

“I started without you,” he told them, not looking at them, “this is fascinating. Satellite 5 contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but YOU three… you don’t exist!” they looked right at him as he laughed, “not a trace! No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?”

Rose spotted Eva, sat with a row of people before one of the terminals, and quickly made her way over, “Suki!” she knelt next to her, but Eva made no move, “Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki?” she glared over at the Editor, “what’ve you done to her?”

“I think he’s dead,” the Doctor replied grimly, looking at the unreactive line of people.

“She’s working…”

“They’ve all got chips in their heads, and the chips keep going. Like puppets.”

“Oh!” the Editor cheered, pointing at him, “you’re full of information! But it’s only fair we get information back, because apparently, you’re no one,” he laughed as the Doctor nodded, “it’s so rare not to know something. Who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter, ‘cos we’re off, nice to meet you,” the Doctor glared at him before calling to Rose, “come on.”

Lexie spun around and raised a metal pipe, eyes widening as four dead employees shuffled towards them. She swung the pipe, swearing under her breath as one of the employee’s hands quickly shot up, grabbed the pipe, and threw it out of reach. Rose turned, watching in concern as the four employees restrained Lexie and the Doctor, and made the move to help only for Eva’s corpse to grab her arm as well.

“Tell me who you are!” the Editor yelled persistently.

“Since that information’s keeping us alive, I’m hardly gonna say, am I?” the Doctor replied.

The man simply smirked, “well, perhaps my Editor-in-Chief can convince you otherwise.”

“And who’s that?” Lexie spat out, struggling.

“It may interest you to know that this is NOT the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it’s not actually human at all. It’s merely a place where humans happen to live.”

Something above them roared, sounding angry.

“Yeah, sorry. It’s a place where humans are _allowed_ to live by kind permission of my client,” he clicked his fingers and pointed upwards at the creature attached to the ceiling.

They slowly looked up, their eyes widening at the sight of the hug, slobbering blob of an alien with

The slowly looked up, their eyes widening at the sight of the huge, wet looking blob of an alien with a slobbering mouth of sharp teeth, snapping down at them.

“What is that?” Rose breathed, nervous and fearful.

“You mean, that _thing’s_ in charge of Satellite 5?” the Doctor stared up at it.

"That 'thing,' as you put it, is in charge of the Human Race," the Editor glared as the Doctor looked at him in shock, "for almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled, by its broadcast news. Edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic, Maxarodenfoe," it roared loudly as the Editor smiled, "I call him Max."

The Doctor smiled falsely and nodded.


	6. The Long Game - The Breaking News

Adam walked back through Floor 139, turning swiftly and trying to not stand out by tying his shoelaces as Cathica stepped out from a corner, not seeming to notice him. She walked towards the computer the Doctor had hacked into for the codes, glancing around as she entered the lift, put in the code, and took off up to Floor 500.

~DW~

Lexie tried her best to not kick a dead employee in the crotch as she was fastened into a set of manacles, opting to instead struggle against them until they stepped away, on her sides were Rose and the Doctor in similar restraints.

“If we create a climate of fear…” the Editor was explaining, “then it’s easy to keep the borders closed. It’s just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote…”

“So, all the people on Earth are like… slaves?” Rose frowned.

“Well, now. There’s an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn’t know he’s enslaved?”

“Yes,” Lexie scoffed at that.

“Oh,” he blinked, jutting out his lower lip, “I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I’m going to get? ‘ _Yes_?’”

“Yes,” the Doctor answered this time.

The Editor just laughed, “you’re no fun.”

“Let me out of these manacles, you’ll find out how much fun I am.”

“Oh, he’s tough, isn’t he? But, come on. Isn’t it a great system? You’ve got to admire it, just a little bit.”

“You can’t hide something on this scale,” Rose reasoned, “somebody must’ve noticed.”

“From time to time, someone, yes. But the computer system allows me to see inside their brain. I can see the smallest doubt,” the Editor made a fist, slamming into his open palm, “and _crush it_.”

~DW~

Cathica stepped off the lift of Floor 500, looking around the snow-covered area in shock, before shaking her head and striding across it.

~DW~

Adam peered into the work room they’d been in earlier and cautiously stepped in when deciding it was completely empty, nodding to himself and shut the door behind him.

~DW~

“And then they just carry on, living their life,” the Editor sighed, sounding almost disappointed, “strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they’re SO individual…”

The Doctor peered over at Rose and Lexie, checking on how the humans were holding up being captured. Rose was somewhat used to being captured, from being locked in a slowly burning room above a dying Earth to being kidnapped and almost dying at the hands of the Gelth in Victorian London, she was slowly becoming desensitised to the idea of being captured with her life on the line but Lexie was new to all this.

She shouldn’t be in this predicament; she should be somewhere safe and out of harms way… but that was never the case. He could easily list the many times he had thought the same about the companions of his past, it always seemed anyone he travelled with ended up risking their life for _him_. But as he looked at her more closely, she didn’t seem nervous, she didn’t seem frightened, she seemed calm… calculative even as her eyes darted around the room for _something_. She wasn’t like Adam, who’d given up and in need of a rest, she wasn’t like Cathica, who didn’t want to believe the truths placed in front of her, and she wasn’t like Rose, who had faced death before and been frightened… who exactly was Lexie Holmes?

Lexie nudged him with her leg, pulling out of his thoughts, and she mutely nodded in the direction of _Cathica_ , who was stood just out of view in the doorway, not wanting to reveal herself.

“When of course, they’re not,” the Editor continued, “they’re just _cattle_. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn’t changed a thing.”

“What about you?” Lexie frowned at him, “you’re not one of _those_ things?”

“Jagrafess,” the Doctor corrected her.

“ _Jagrafess_. You’re not a Jagrafess. You’re human.”

“Yeah, well simply being human doesn’t pay very well,” the Editor shrugged.

“But you couldn’t have done this all on your own.”

“No! I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to um… install himself.”

“No wonder, a creature of that size,” the Doctor drew attention to the creature, glancing up. Cathica, still hidden, followed his gaze to see the Jagrafess on the ceiling, “what’s his life span?”

“Three thousand years,” the Editor stated.

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. _That's_ why Satellite 5's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs, Jagrafess stays cool, stays alive. Satellite 5's one great big life support system."

~DW~

Adam sat in the chair he’d seen Cathica in, snapping his fingers to open his head. He pulled out Rose’s mobile and called his home one more time, waiting for the message on the answer machine to play out, “me again _Don’t_ wipe this message. It’s gonna sound like white noise, but save it because I can translate it. Okay? Three, two, one… and spike!”

The compressed information started to flow into his brain, being recorded over the phone.

~DW~

“But THAT’S why you’re so dangerous,” the Editor grinned wickedly, “knowledge is power, but you remain unknown,” he snapped his fingers and the manacles began to send an electrical current through them, “who are you?”

~DW~

Adam started to shake, the sheer amount of power starting to take its toll.

~DW~

The Doctor grimaced in pain, looking up at the man with pleading eyes, “leave them alone. I’m the Doctor, she’s Rose Tyler, and she’s Lexie Holmes, we’re nothing, we’re just wandering.”

“Tell me who you are!”

“I just said!”

“Yeah, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly…” he stopped, just as the current ended.

~DW~

Adam shuddered, wincing slightly as he felt something change.

~DW~

The Doctor looked at the Editor questioningly as the man smiled, “Time Lord.”

The Doctor blinked in surprise, “what?”

“Oh, yes!” the Editor laughed, “the last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girls from long ago…” he reached out to touch Rose’s face, though he jolted back when Lexie swiftly kicked him in the gut, and turned his attention to her, “and the girl who acts more like a soldier than a scientist…” Lexie glared at him.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Doctor glared.

“Time travel.”

~DW~

Adam started to scream; information being pulled out of him with force.

~DW~

“Someone’s been telling you lies,” the Doctor shook his head.

“Young master Adam Mitchell?” the Editor asked with a raised eyebrow. He clicked his fingers and a large security monitor turned on, showing them a direct feed of Adam, writhing in agony, shouting as he was unable to move from the chair in the work room, a stream of compressed information striking his brain, now with a door similar to Cathica’s in his head.

“Oh, my God, his head!” Rose’s eyes widened.

“What the hell’s he done?” the Doctor shouted, “what the hell’s he gone and done?”

“Their reading his mind,” Lexie realised, her voice cold and harsh, “and he’d telling them _everything_!”

“And through him, I know everything about you,” the Editor smirked, “he made the door, and we can keep it open, extracting _every last detail_. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you’ve seen in you T-A-R-D-I-S, _TARDIS_.”

“You’ll never get your hands on it. I’ll die first,” the Doctor promised.

“I’m surprised the _Dalek_ _killer_ hasn’t spoke yet,” the Editor turned his attention to Lexie, “such a mystery, not even Adam has you figured out yet.”

“I’ll be an Editor killer soon,” Lexie growled at him, though she didn’t move towards him.

He just rolled his eyes at her statement, “kill me if you want, but I’ll have the key soon enough,” he nodded to the feed where the key to the TARDIS was slowly lifting out of Adam’s pocket and dangling before him, Adam in no position to try and pull it back.

“You and your boyfriends!” the Doctor rounded on Rose.

“Today, WE are the headlines,” the Editor cut in, “we can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from _ever_ developing.”

"And no one's gonna stop you," the Doctor's eyes narrowed at the Editor, before his gaze turned to Cathica over the man's shoulder, "because you've bred a Human Race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of _gold_.”

Cathica nodded and quickly ran away, understanding the message.

~DW~

Cathica entered a work room on Floor 500, tossing the rotten corpse Eva had discovered off the chair and quickly sat herself on the seat, “disengage safety,” she ordered.

The walls lit up around her.

~DW~

An alarm began to sound in the control room.

“What happening?” the Editor rushed over to the workers at their terminals, staring at the monitors.

~DW~

“Maximum access,” Cathica continued, “Override Floor 139.”

~DW~

Adam gasped as he was released, the information ceasing to stream in and out of him.

~DW~

Cathica took a bracing breath, preparing herself, “and… spike!”

The information began to stream in and _out_ of her.

~DW~

“Someone’s disengaged the safety,” the Editor spun around in alarm. He snapped his fingers and the feed from Adam switched to Cathica, “who’s that?!”

“It’s Cathica!” Rose cheered.

“And she’s thinking,” the Doctor grinned.

“And she’s using everything she knows!” Lexie added.

“Terminate her access!” the Editor turned to Eva.

“Everything I told her about Satellite 5. The pipes, the filters, she reversing it! Look at that…” he turned to look at the icicles all around the room as they slowly started to melt, “it’s getting hot.”

“I said _terminate_!” the Editor exclaimed, forcing his own hands on top of Eva’s, “burn her mind.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Cathica said on the monitor, “you should’ve promoted me YEARS back!”

All the screens suddenly exploded, sending showers of sparks everywhere, the dead workers falling lifelessly onto their terminals. Satellite 5 shook, alarms blaring around them, and the manacles around Rose’s hands popped open, allowing her to wiggle her hands out. Lexie pulled slightly against her restraints, barely managing to squeeze one hand out, though it did leave her with a slight cut.

The Editor tried to get the corpses upright to work, not noticing the trio freeing themselves behind him.

"She's venting the heat up here," the Doctor shouted, "the Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano!"

The Jagrafess let out a bellowing roar as the Doctor chuckled darkly up at it.

"Yes!" the Editor shouted at the roar, "uh...I'm trying sir, but I don't know how she did it, it's _impossible_. A member of staff with an idea…"

The Jagrafess simply grew angrier as the Editor pushed Eva's body aside, trying to operate the computer himself.

Rose turned to the Doctor, fumbling to get his sonic out of his pocket as the Jagrafess snapped at them menacingly, "what do I do?" she yelled.

"Flick the switch!" the Doctor ordered.

Rose did just that as the sonic buzzed to life. A small explosion went off nearby, causing Rose to jump. She turned her attention back to the manacles, finally getting the Doctor out. He grabbed the sonic and turned to undo Lexie’s final manacle before spinning to the Editor, “oi, mate, wanna bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body. Massive bang!”

Lumps of flesh started falling off the Jagrafess as it swelled.

“See you in the headlines!” he called as they dashed away, out the back entrance, and the Jagrafess started to throb horribly, glowing faintly red.

They hadn’t realised that Lexie wasn’t behind them, the woman stalking into view of the Editor… his eyes widened when he caught sight of something in her hand.

~DW~

Lexie managed to catch up with the Doctor and Rose, tucking something into the waistband of her jeans, and smiled at them, confused.

“Where were you?” the Doctor asked.

“Just punched him in the face,” she assured them, Rose laughing slightly, “come on, we’ve got to get out of here.”

But the Doctor hesitated for a moment, so sure he’d seen something metallic shine in her hand.

~DW~

The Editor sobbed as he desperately tried to drag himself across the floor, blood soaking through the kneepads of his suit trousers. He’d been shot! The Dalek killer had shot him in his knees, she hadn’t even hesitated when he pleaded for her to let him go.

“This is for all these people,” was all she had said before she fired Eva’s discarded gun and ran out of the room.

He didn’t care that the Jagrafess roared in pain above him, he didn’t care that Eva managed to draw a smile onto her lifeless form, he only cared about getting out of the room.

~DW~

They burst into the work room where Cathica was lying, the information still streaming into her.

~DW~

The Jagrafess swelled horribly, exploding moments later as the Editor screamed in terror.

~DW~

The Doctor clicked his fingers, closing the door in Cathica’s head. Her eyes fluttered open as she looked up to the Doctor, who smiled down at her.

~DW~

Lexie stood off to the side as she looked around as the residents of Floor 139 started to recover from the commotion caused by the destruction of the Jagrafess. The Doctor and Cathica were sat at a table not too far away, talking, while Rose leant against a vendor’s counter behind them.

“We’re just gonna go,” the Doctor said, “I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You’ll manage.”

“You’ll have to stay and explain it, no one’s gonna believe me,” Cathica shook her head.

“Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The Human Race should accelerate. All back to normal.”

Cathica eyed Adam, who was loitering by the TARDIS, “what about your friend?”

“He’s not my friend,” he stated firmly, a menacing hint in his tone. He offered Cathica one final, if not stiff, smile before marching in Adam’s direction, Rose and Lexie following him closely.

“Now, don’t…” Rose tried to say, but stopped when she felt Lexie’s hand on her shoulder.

“I’m alright now,” Adam said nervously, acting like nothing had happened, “much better. I’ve got the key,” he dangled the key before the Doctor, “well, it’s… I know…” he chuckled nervously, catching the cold looks on Lexie and the Doctor’s faces, “it all worked out for the best, didn’t it?” the Doctor just snatched the key off him and grabbed him by the shoulder, opening the TARDIS door, “you know, it’s not actually _my_ fault, because YOU were in charge…” and simply pushed him inside, ignoring him.

~DW~

The Doctor shoved Adam out of the TARDIS that had materialised in a small living room, Rose and Lexie following, shutting the door behind them.

“It’s my house!” Adam grinned, looking around in surprise, “I’m home! Oh, my God, I’m home!” he looked over at the Doctor, who simply glared harshly at him, “blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock.”

“Is there something you want to tell me?” the Doctor raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms.

“No,” he shook his head, though his voice wavered for a moment, “um… what do you mean?”

The Doctor strode across the room to a nearby telephone, picking it up and held it out for Adam to see, “the archive of Satellite 5. One second of that message could’ve changed the world,” Adam looked like a deer in the headlights as the Doctor put the phone down and flashed the sonic on it, blowing it up, “that’s it then. See ya,” he turned and brushed past him towards the TARDIS.

“How do you mean, ‘see ya?!’”

“As in ‘goodbye.’”

"But...what about me? You can't just go, I've got my head, I've got a chip Type Two, my head _opens_."

"What, like this?" the Doctor clicked his fingers, opening Adam's head.

"Don't," Adam said angrily, snapping his fingers, closing it.

"Don't do what?" he asked innocently, snapping his fingers again.

"Stop it!" Adam hissed at him, closing it.

"Alright now, Doctor, that's enough," Rose lightly cut in, "stop it."

"Thank you," Adam smiled at Rose, who just clicked her fingers, "oi!"

Rose just snickered, "sorry, I couldn't resist."

Adam closed one final time.

He spared Lexie a quick glance, as did Rose and the Doctor, but the woman looked at him with a face like thunder and was certainly in no mood to snap her fingers at him to open his chip… he gulped, more nervous than before.

"The whole of history could've changed because of you," the Doctor quickly became serious once more.

"I just wanted to help."

"You were helping yourself."

"And, I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this."

“He can,” Lexie spoke up this time, marching towards him and he stumbled backwards, “because if you even breath a word of what you’ve got in your head, every global organisation is gonna track you down and dissect you in a heartbeat. There are people already watching you’re movements, I advise you keep you head down, don’t do anything noticeable… become _forgettable_. Understood?” she didn’t wait for a reply, turning on her heel to step into the TARDIS.

"But I wanna come with you!" Adam weakly tried to say, but he knew even if he did travel with them, Lexie would be breathing down his neck every second.

"I only take the best for my companions," the Doctor turned to him, "I've got Rose,” and he stepped into the TARDIS after her.

The implication that Lexie was not a best companion was not lost on either of the humans.

There was a sound from the front of the house as the door opened.

“Oh, my God,” Adam’s eyes widened.

“Who’s that?” a woman called out, “Jeff? Is that you?”

“It's me, mum, don't come in, wait there a minute," Adam called back.

"Oh, my Lord! You never told me you were coming home!" Rose watched Adam’s embarrassed face teasingly, "hold on, I'll just take my coat off. You should've told me you were coming home. I would've got your favourite tea in."

“Rose… take me with you,” he pleaded.

But she just stared at him, as though she’d never seen him before, and turned to board the TARDIS without a backward glance. The engines started moments later.

"Hey, I'll tell…what's that noise?" his mum called, "have you left the back door open? Blimey _,_ there's a draft," she flung open the door to the room just as the TARDIS disappeared, "what a surprise! Ah, let me look at you. Ah, six months," Adam nodded, "it's like I saw you yesterday. Isn't it funny? The time goes by like that," she clicked her fingers…

Her jaw dropped open moments later.

~DW~

Lexie sat in the small kitchen of the TARDIS; a cup of half drunken coffee sat before her while she focused her attention of the gun, she’d taken from Satellite 5. She been surprised that despite its futuristic design that she’d managed to pull the trigger without much trouble, put she supposed a gun was a gun no matter when it was made. She’s pulled out what she assumed was the magazine, tilting her head to the side as she looked at the ten lights on either side, four of which had been blackened out while another six glowed green… and obvious sign that whoever had used the gun before her had tried to fire on the Jagrafess.

She supposed it must have been Suki that threw her the gun, she could have sworn that she’d seen the corpse move something, as one final defiant act against her killers. She smiled sadly at the thought, no one deserved that fate… especially someone as innocent as her.

Was this what life was going to be like with the Doctor? The three of them getting away scot free while everyone around them died? She hopefully managed to avenge the lives of Suki Cantrell and the nameless workers, but would that always be the case? Would she always be able to avenge those or would she have to walk away with the Doctor and Rose into the TARDIS and act like nothing affected her anymore?

_She wouldn’t allow that._

The Doctor may be a man of peace, but she wasn’t. She was a woman of justice, and justice would be delivered in one way or another… even if that put her at odds with the Doctor and Rose.

She’d been to wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear the Doctor enter the kitchen area, his eyes glancing over her shoulder as she examined the gun. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t seen it sooner, then again; he’d been to wrapped up in the mystery of Satellite 5. She was a soldier; he’d spent the entire lifespan of his previous body surrounded by soldiers and even became one himself.

“What did you do to the Editor?” he asked, expecting the worst.

She jumped and spun around, hiding the gun behind the angle she turned, “I just punched him in the face,” she shook her head, “I mean, he deserved worse but the Jagrafess probably finished him off.”

“You don’t seem to fazed by that,” the Doctor frowned, acting coy, “who are you?”

Lexie frowned at that, raising an eyebrow in confusion, “I’m Lexie Holmes, I thought we’d already been introduced back in Van Statten’s.”

“But there’s more to you, Lexie Holmes. ‘Cause there isn’t a trace of you in the TARDIS databanks, but there is _one_ Lexie Holmes on record,” Lexie’s frown deepened at that, her body tensing, “but that Lexie Holmes died in 2009, she was only eight.”

Lexie took a deep breath, her expression turning cold as she looked at him more closely this time, “what are you trying to imply?”

“That you’re a ghost in the system. A chameleon. Someone who’s probably forgotten her real name by now. A _soldier_.”

She cracked a small smile, shaking her head, “I think the whole Adam thing has messed with your head, Doctor,”

“I’m sure you did something more than just punch the Editor,” the Doctor continued, nodding his head in the direction of the concealed gun, “‘cause that’s a VL-98 Blaster, nothing like that existed in your workshop back in Satten’s, and you’ll never live to see one manufactured unless you found it in the future,” she looked away, caught out, but his tone turned harsh, not as harsh as it had been to Adam but enough it might leave an impression, “if I even find out you used that blaster to actively harm someone or something, “I will not hesitate to leave you behind.”

“Is that a threat?” Lexie asked, looking him in the eye.

“It’s a _promise_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: and there we have it! The entire episode of The Long Game has been completed at last! Also, how we liking the whole Monday/Tuesday upload thing? I might try and make it a permanent thing.
> 
> Up next is Father’s Day – A Second Chance, how will things fare for Lexie as she is threatened by the Doctor? Will Rose pick up on the tension between the two or will she brush it off as nothing? What happens when the Reapers attack? Will the Doctor stop Lexie from violence or will it be for the best? Find out, hopefully,


End file.
